Kaxuth

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Kaxuth arabice cuschuta.


Apparatus:

Kaxuth ABC fp | Kaxuch ms. e | Kauth j
cuschuta ABC j | cuscuta ef | cuscutha p


Translation:

Kaxuth is Arabic for Latin cuschuta {"dodder"}.


Commentary and botanical identification:

Kaxuth:
Siggel (1950: 63): ﻛﺷﻮﺕ /kušūt/, ﻛﺷﻮﺙ /kušūṯ/ Cuscuta monogyna (Convolvulac.) u.a.; {"dodder, and other plants of this genus"}.

Simon’s vocalisation is found in Lane (1984: 2613) who has: ﻛﺷﻮﺙ /kašūṯ/, /kušūṯ/; ﻛﺸﻮﺛﻰ /kašūṯā/ and ﻛﺸﻮﺛﺎﺀ /kašūṯāʔu/ … [a species of cuscuta, or dodder] a certain plant that clings to the branches of trees, having no root in the earth.

ﻛﺸﻮﺛﺎ /kašūṯā/ is also the vocalisation Asín Palacios (1943: 299) s.v. “557. ṬINYA, ṬINNA …” chooses.

Cf. also Karbstein (2002: 167-8): 6) Flachsseide {i.e. “flax dodder”} Cuscuta epithymum Murray: ﻛﺸﻮﺗﺎ /kašūṯan/, proving that this vocalisation was still used by the Morisco community in Spain in the early 17th c.

cuschuta:
The Latin word cuscuta, which has survived into botanical Latin, appears only as late as in medieval Latin and with a number of variants e.g. cussata, cassutha, gasitha and cassytha - the latter survived into botanical Latin in the form Cassyta.
Some etymologists see the Arabic word as the source of cuscuta, others assume that the Arabic word is ultimately a loan from Greek καδύτας /kadýtas/ "a parasitic plant, dodder, Cassyta filiformis" (LSJ). However Cassyta filiformis L. [[1]] is a species of the parasitic genus Cassyta with pantropical distribution and therefore most unlikely to be the Greek καδύτας /kadýtas/. Dodders are species of the unrelated genus Cuscuta [[2]], which has only four species growing in Europe. Perhaps καδύτας /kadýtas/ is Cuscuta europaea L., "greater dodder" [[3]], Cuscusta epithymum (L.) L. [4]], [[5]], Cuscuta epilimum Weihe "flax dodder" [[6]] or much less likely Cuscuta lupuliformis Krock., "hop dodder" [[7]].


WilfGunther 08/12/2013


See also: Cuscute


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