Bateca

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Bateca arabice melo magnus viridis que anguria a quibusdam dicitur, vel alius melo qui apud tunecim vocatur sic.


Apparatus:

Bateca AC | Bathecha B e | Batheca fjp
{arabice} melo | mello B
anguria | auguria j {'n' misread as 'u'}
{alius} melo | melo ul’ melon j
tunecim (-cĩ jp) AC jp | tunetim B | tuneaӡ f | tuneaӡ or tineam? e
vocatur sic | sic dicit~ f


Translation:

Bateca is Arabic for a big green melo {"melon"}, which is also called by some anguria, or it can mean another melo which is given that same name in Tunis.


Commentary:

Bateca:
Cf. Wehr (1976): ﺑﻄﺦ /biṭṭīḫ/, /baṭṭīḫ/ (n. un. ﺓ) "melon, water-melon". Siggel (1950: 20):ﺑﻄﺦ /biṭṭīḫ/ Cucumis melo (Cucurbitac.), Melone (i.e. "melon"}.

Lane (1984: 216) mentions ﺑﻄﺦ /biṭṭīḫ/, but calls the vocalisation /baṭṭīḫ/ "vulgarly and incorrectly pronounced". Dozy (1887-81: I.93) expressly marks /baṭṭīḫ/ as belonging to Spain with Vocabulista as his source. Cf. also Corriente (1997: 55), s.v. *(BṬX) for further witnesses.

ﺑﻄﻴﺨﺔ /baṭṭīḫa/ is the nomen unitatis of ﺑﻄﻴﺦ /baṭṭīḫ/.

The word in the /baṭṭīḫa/ vocalisation is well-documented in Andalusi Arabic: Vocabulista, ed. Schiaparelli (1871: 38): Pepo ﺑﻄﻴﺨﺔ /baṭṭīḫa/ [[1]]; (1871: 516): PEPO, albudeca ﺑﻄﻴﺨﺔ //baṭṭīḫa/ [[2]]. N.b. Latin pepo means "a species of large melon or pumpkin"; albudeca see below.

Pedro de Alcalá (1883: 113): badeha … batíka, batík [[3]]. N.b. Spanish badea - in Pedro: badeha - means "watermelon, melon or cucumber of poor quality".

Karbstein (2002: 75): 9) Melone {i.e. "melon"} Cucumis melo L: ﺑﻄﻴﺦ...ﻋﺠﻤﻴﺔ ﺑﺘﺎﻗﺶ ﻭﻫﻮ ﺍﻟﻗﺜﺎ /baṭīḫ {sic!} … ʕağamīya butāqaš wa huwa al-qaṯā/. /butāqaš/ represents Catalan/Spanish (al)budecas – without the Arabic article, see below. For /al-qaṯā/ see Kate.

ﺑﻄﻴﺨﺔ /baṭṭīḫa/ was adopted into the Hispanic languages: Cf. Spanish badea, older badeha (see Pedro de Alcalá, 1883), which is derived from the ungeminated form ﺑﻄﻴﺦ /baṭīḫa/ (cf. Karbstein, 2002); Corominas (1980: vol. A-CA.451), s.v. BADEA; Portuguese bateca/ batega < /baṭṭīḫa/ Machado (1977: I.403), s.v. Catalan/ Spanish albudeca "tasteless or watery melon" < ﺑﻄﻴﺤﺔ /buṭṭayḫa/ diminutive of ﺑﻄﺤﺔ /baṭṭīḫa/, cf. Corominas (1980-91: vol. A-CA.123), s.v. ALBUDECA.


anguria:
is the Italian word for "water melon", cf. Battisti (1968: I.206-7), s.v. angùria, a word well represented with several variants in the North Italian languages and dialects, of which Simon would have had some knowledge as a speaker of Ligurian, though Modern Ligurian has pateca, a variant of bateca. The etymology of anguria is difficult, it is seen as ultimately derived from later Greek ἀγγούριον /angúrion/ "cucumber" (Sophocles), "Gurke" {= cucumber} (Trapp), which may relate to ἄγουρος /águros/ "young man; unripe, green" (cf. Battisti op.cit.).

tunecim:
This is most likely Spanish tunecí < Arabic ﺗﻮﻧﺴﻰ /tūnisī/ "Tunisian", from ﺗﻮﻧﺲ /tūnis/, Spanish: Túnez Tunisia and Tunis.


Botanical identification:

According to Siggel’s (1950) identification it is Cucumis melo L., the "muskmelon" [[4]]. Asín Palacios (1943: 178-9) under 349. MELOL …. , extracts information on five kinds of Baṭṭij {= /baṭṭīḫ/} from his source. According to him the "yellow" /baṭṭīḫ/ is Cucumis melo and the "green" one is Cucumis citrullus L . {nowadays: = Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) Matsum. & Nakai [[5]], originally a native of South Africa that has been widely distributed over may countries and cultivated for a long time, developing many varieties.

The variety denoted by the name ﺑﻄﻴﺨﺔ /baṭṭīḫa/ in Tunis is difficult to ascertain.


WilfGunther (talk) 21:10, 24 August 2015 (BST)


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