Asfengi
Asfengi arabice spongia alhabari marina que gefafe et etiam seofe dicitur, sed asfengi est a greco corruptum .f. pro .p. littera posita qua carent, nam greci spongos dicunt infra in sp.
Apparatus:
Asfengi | Affengi p
albahari B fjp | alba hari{marina} ms. e | albagari AC
gefafe ABC | gaefafe j | gefase fp {‘f’ misread as "long s"} | gefasse ms. e
etiam | e͡c f
seofe | seȏfe j | sedfe C | sœfe ms. e
{sed} asfengi ABC | asfeng efj | affengi p
corruptum | coruptũ p
qua | que (q̃ AC) AC e
carent | caret f
spongos | pongos ms. e
Translation:
Asfengi is Arabic for Latin spongia {"sponge"}, and {Arabic} albahari means "of the sea" {i.e. Asfengi albahari "sea sponge"}, which is also called gefafe and seofe; however, the word asfengi is a corruption of the Greek word, with the sound /f/ replacing the sound /p/, a sound the Arabs do not have. The original Greek is spongos, see Spongia below.
Commentary:
Asfengi:
Cf. Wehr (1976: 414): ﺳﻔﻨﺞ /safanğ/ or /sifanğ/ or ﺍﺳﻔﻨﺞ /isfanğ/ "sponge".
Siggel (1950: 14): ﺍﺳﻔﻨﺞ /isfunğ/ (ﺍﻟﺒﺤﺮ /al-baḥr/) Spongia officinalis L., Meeresschwamm {i.e. "marine sponge"}.
Karbstein (2002: 38), in his Morisco glossary of early 17th century Spain, has ﺍﺳﻔﻨﺞ ﺍﻟﺒﺤﺮ /asfaniğ il-baḥri/ "Meereschwamm/Bimstein/Meerschaum {i.e. "sea sponge/ pumice stone/ meerschaum"}.
spongia:
The original Greek source word is σπόγγος /spóngos/ or σφόγγος /sphóngos/ with a collateral form from which the Latin loan derives: σπογγιά /spongiá/ both meaning "sponge".
WilfGunther 13:23, 13 April 2015 (BST)
See also: Gefafe, Saufe, Spongia
