Scuria

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Scuria ut Cassius felix vessice passio scilicet quando ex toto denegatur urine exitus.


Apparatus:

Scuria AB efjp | Scutia C {'r' misread as 't'}
ut om. ef
vessice AC | uesice B efjp
denegatur | negat~ j
denegatur urine AC | u. d. B efp | urine negat~ j
{exitus} et cetera add. C


Translation:

Scuria, as Cassius Felix states, is an affliction of the bladder, i.e. when the passing of urine is totally blocked.


Commentary:

Simon is referring to Cassius Felix De medicina, 46, ed. Fraisse (2001: 128). Ad vesicae passiones {"On bladder afflictions"}. In his introductory paragraph 1, Cassius offers some explanations, why the "nervous" bladder is prone to the following diseases: periculosa ischuria id est ex toto urinae abstinentia, et dysuria id est urinae difficultas, et stranguria id est urinae paulatim per guttas exclusio – "the dangerous ischuria, which is the total retention of urine, and dysuria, which means there is some difficulty in passing water, and strangury, which is the slow drop by drop passing of urine."
This text is also available online in the Rose edition (1879: 115) [[1]].

Scuria:
Greek ἰσχουρία /iskhouría/ is a compound noun consisting of ἰσχ- /iskh-/ {a root meaning "to keep back"} + -ουρ- /-our-/ the root of οὖρον /oûron/ {"urine"} + -ία /-ía/ {nominal ending} > "retention of urine".
The word was adopted into Latin as ischuria. Simon's form Scuria, which could well be copied from a Cassius Felix manuscript, since Fraisse mentions in her apparatus some witnesses that have scuria or scuriam. This form shows substratal influence from Simon's Romance background: in late Antiquity words with an initial consonant sequence /sk-/ developed a prosthetic vowel /isk-/ e.g. sc(h)ola > iscola in Vulgar Latin and consequently in the Romance daughter languages. This led to an uncertainty with many speakers when confronted with a word like e.g. isc(h)uria whether the initial /i/ sound was either etymological or vulgar. Obviously for the word in question the wrong conclusion was drawn early on by one or other copyist. Cf. Väänänen (1981: 47-8; §§ 82-3).

The Greek sound χ {transcribed /kh/}, which occurs in ischuria, is similar to Scottish "loch", German "ach" or "ich" or Spanish "jota". In classical times educated Latin speakers pronounced this foreign sound like the Greeks, but in Vulgar Latin and in the later Romania this sound was replaced by the /k/ sound - generally written "c" -, as indeed it is in Simon's transcription above.

dysuria:
δυσουρία /dysuría/ consists of δυσ- /dys-/ {prefix indicating malfunction} + ουρ- /-our-/ the root of οὖρον /oûron/ {"urine"} + -ία /-ía/ {nominal ending} > "malfunctioning urination". The word was adopted into Latin as dysuria.

For strangury cf. Stranguiria.

Ischuria defined as retention or suppression of urine; dysuria as difficult or painful urination and strangury as severe pain in the urethra referred from the base of the bladder and associated with an intense desire to pass urine (cf. Martin, 1985) are still part of modern medical terminology.


WilfGunther (talk) 11:59, 26 October 2016 (BST)


See also Stranguiria


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