Anfimerina

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Anfimerina febris .i. quotidiana anfimerinus interdum reperitur et est grecum ab amphi quod est circum et ymera dies eo quod singulos dies circuit .m. ante .f. grece scribitur.


Apparatus:

febris .i. quotidiana AD | febris .i. cotidiana C | febris .i. cottidiãa B | .i. febris cottidiana e

anfimerinus ACD e | aufire anfimerĩus B {copyist abandoned wrongly copied aufire and started again}

ab amphi ACD | ab anfi B | ab amfi e

dies ABD e | dices C {dies misread as dices lit. 'you shall/will say'}

.m.añ.f.g. (grece e) scribitur (scribitur C) ACD e | m ãte f scribit~ gre. B


Translation:

Anfimerina febris .i. e. the quotidian fever, sometimes encountered as anfimerinus, is a Greek word, from amphi which means 'around' and ymera 'day', because it recurs daily. In Greek the letter ‘m’ {rather than ‘n’} is {always} written before /f/.


Commentary:

The Greek for 'quotidian fever' is ἀμφημερινὸς πυρετός /amphēmerinòs pyretós/, sometimes shortened to ἀμφημερινός /amphēmerinós/, portrayed here by Simon in its medieval Latinised pronunciation anfimerinus < /amfimerinós/. He has analysed the word correctly as consisting of ἀμφι- /amphi-/, i.a. 'around' + ἡμέρα /hēméra {itacist} iméra/ 'day'. He wrongly assumes that /anfi-/ is the correct form, but “the Greeks always write ‘m’ before ‘f’”.

The form anfimerina agrees with the feminine noun febris {“fever”}.

In the Latin-writing medical literature febres cotidianae is the common expression for ‘quotidian fever’, but anfimerinus can occasionally be found, e.g. in Sextus Placitus Papyriensis - Liber medicinae ex animalibus pecoribus et bestiis vel avibus, chapter IX De cane, α 21, p.264: Ad febres amfimerinas.


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