Apozima (2)

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Apozima Dyascorides pix que de navi raditur quam greci apozimiam vocant.


Apparatus:

Apozima AC f | Apozimia BH e

apozimam C | apozimiam (-aʒ e) BH e | apozumaʒ f | apoxiam A {see Commentary}


Translation:

Apozima. Dioscorides says: it is a form of pitch which is scraped off a ship and which the Greeks called apozimia.


Commentary:

Greek ἀπόχυμα /apókhyma/, lit. "what is poured out", is derived from ἀπο- /apo-/ {"away from, out"} + –χυμα /-khyma/ a derivative of χέω /khéō/ {"to pour out"}. The word is pronounced in the late Greek itacist pronunciation /apókhima/, of which the expected late antique and Medieval Latin adaptation would be written apoc(h)ima, rather than the etymologically oriented apochyma. The form found in Dioscorides Longobardus is indeed apocima.

At an early stage contamination must have taken place between apocima and the similar sounding apozema, cf. the prior entry Apozima (1), the latter being derived from ἀπóζεμα /apózema/ "decoction". This would explain the exchange of the original 'c' of apocima for 'z' in Apozima (2).

In the forms apozimiam (witnesses B e) the less common ending –ima was replaced by the more familiar –imia.

Apoxia: the suggested Greek form in witness A: apoxia may in part be due to a false transliteration of the Greek ἀπόχυμα /apókhyma/, because the Greek letter χ /kh/ resembles a Latin alphabet "x". The disappearance of "m" in 'apoxia' could easily have happened in the manuscripts, where the letter "m" word-internally or -finally was often not written fully out but only indicated with a til, i.e. ~, over the preceding vowel, e.g. *apoxĩa for apoxima. Naturally this diacritic can easily be lost.

Simon here refers ultimately to Dioscorides Longobardus, an early Latin translation of Dioscorides' De materia medica, 1, 82, ed. Hofmann (1883: 44f), De pice dura et apocima id est rasura nabis - {"On hard pitch and apocima, which is resin scraped from ships"}. Later on in the chapter he says: Nam et alie pice aliqui dicunt, que de navi raditur, mixta cera et resina, quam medici apocima vocant - "But some people speak of another kind of pitch, which is scraped off ships, and mixed with wax and resin, which the physicians call apocima", though the Greek original does not say that ἀπόχυμα /apókhyma/ is a medical term, cf. 1, 72, ed. Wellmann (1906-14: I.72), πίσσα /píssa/ {"pitch"}.

Also in the Greek original text Dioscorides mentions the synonymous term ζώπισσα /zṓpissa/, which seems to be more specifically expressing the mixture of pitch and wax from old ships.

See Zoissam below.

WilfGunther 14/10/2013


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