Difference between revisions of "Zufe"

Latest revision as of 16:06, 11 May 2016

Zufe arabice ysopus ratab humida iobes sicca sed Stephanus zufa dixit.

Apparatus:

ratab AC ep | racab B (‘t’ misread as ‘c’} | tatab j {‘r’ misread as ‘t’} | kitab f
iobes B e | yobes C jp | xobes f | obes A
Stephanus zufa (ʒufa j; zuffa p) dixit | z. d. s. ms. f

Translation:

Zufe is Arabic for Latin ysopus {"hyssop"}, and Arabic ratab means 'moist' and iobes means 'dry', but Stephanus writes zufa.

Commentary and Botanical identification:

For the Arabic words quoted cf. Wehr: ﺯﻭﻓﺎﺀ /zūfāʔ/, ﺯﻭﻓﺎ /zūfā/ "hyssop (bot.)". ratab < ﺭﻄﺐ /raṭb/ "moist, damp, humid". iobes < ﻳﺎﺑﺲ /yābis/ "dry, dried out, desiccated, ...".

According to the Tuḥfat al-aḥbāb, edited by Renaud/Colin, p. 64, s.v. Zufāʾ raṭba [sic], the Arabs confused ὕσσωπος /hýssōpos/ “hyssop” and οἴσυπος /oísypos/ “grease extracted from sheep’s wool” calling both very different substances ﺯﻭﻓﺎ /zūfāʔ/, and to distinguish them again they added to adjective ﻳﺎﺑﺲ /yābis/ “dry” for “hyssop” and ﺏﻁﺭ /raṭb/ “humid” for “sheep’s wool grease”.

Arabic ﺯﻭﻓﺎ ﺭﻄﺐ /zūfā raṭb/ is translated by Simon as ysopus humida {"moist hyssop"}.
Cf. Siggel (1950: 40): ﺯﻭﻓﺎ zūfā 1) ﺭﻄﺐ /raṭb/ feuchte: Wollschweiß v. Schaf. {i.e. "moist; greasy substance in the wool of sheep, lanolin, suint"}.

Arabic ﺯﻭﻓﺎ ﻳﺎﺑﺲ /zūfā yābis/ = is translated by Simon as ysopus sicca {"dry hyssop"}. Cf. Siggel (1950: 40): 2) ﻳﺎﺑﺲ /yābis/ trockene: Origanum aegyptiacum od. syriacum od. smyrnaeum (Lab.) {i.e. "dry; Origanum aegyptiacum {syn. Majorana aegyptiaca (L.) Kostel} or syriacum or smyrnaeum {syn. O. onites L"} (Lab.)} [1], [2]; [3], [4].

auch Nepeta orientalis (Lab.) {i.e. also Nepeta orientalis [= syn. N. italica, subsp. italica]} [5], [6]}.

Stephanus in his Breviarium writes: ysopõ ... zufa. [7]

WilfGunther 20/09/12

For further information see Ysopus cerotus, Ysopon.