Campsice

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Campsice aut sicen Dyascoride hastas habet longas digitorum quatuor in terra proiectas lacrimo plenas folia sunt ei lenticule similia et peplo, sed minora et tenuiora, semen habet sub foliis rotundum sicut peplum: et est sine flore radix est illi tenera et inutilis, nascitur asperis et saxosis locis.


Apparatus:

Campsice AC | Campsite B e

sicen B | sicẽ A | sicem C | sycen e

hastas AC | astas B e

quattuor C | quatuor e | quatuor B | quatuor A

terra ABC | terram e

lacrimo C e | lacrĩo B | lachrymo A


Translation:

The plant camsice {"thyme spurge"} or sice. Dyascorides says: It has stalks 4 fingers long, which are spread along the earth and full of sap, with leaves similar to the those of leticula {"lentil"} and peplus {"wartweed, Euphorbia Peplus"}, but smaller and thinner. It has its round fruit under its leaves like peplus. It is without flower. It has a tender but medicinally useless root. It grows in rough and rocky places.


Commentary:

Greek χαμαισύκη /khamaisýkē/ literally means "ground-fig", and in fact its synonym συκῆ /sykê/ means "fig-tree". However, it is not clear what the perceived relationship is between the two very different plants. Carnoy, however, maintains this, p. 76, chamaesycē, … nom d’une petite euphorbe (euphorbia Chamaesyce) dont les branchettes s’étalent sur le sol a la façon – mutatis mutandis – de celles du figuier – "chamaesycē is the name of a small euphorbia (euphorbia Chamaesyce), whose little branches are stretched over the soil in the manner – mutatis mutandis – of those of the fig-tree."

χαμαισύκη /khamaisýkē/, Latinised as chamaesyce, had already suffered a number of corruptions in Simon’s ultimate source, Dioscorides Longobardus, book IV, chapter ΡΞΔ (164) De camesicu, pp. 80/81. The sound changes affecting the word are in accord with changes in late Greek and Vulgar Latin, i.e. late Greek αι > ε {/ai/ > /e/}, υ > ι {/y/ > /i/}, in Vulgar Latin Greek χ {/kh/} is pronounced /k/, leading to /kamesíke/. Also in words of four syllables with stress on the penultimate, the syllable preceding the stress is the weakest, which often led to the loss of the vowel in Vulgar Latin, i.e. /kam(e)síke/; cf. civ(i)táte > Spanish ciudad, Portuguese cidade, carr(i)care > Spanish cargar but Portuguese carregar. The resultant variant camsice is phonetically near-identical to campsice.


Botanical identification:

Most botanical authors agree that the most likely identification of the plant is Euphorbia Chamaesyce L. (syn. Chamaesyce canescens (L.) Prokh.) "thyme spurge", is a prostrate annual herb. Prefers to grow on dry, sandy to stony soil along roadsides. Its distribution stretches from the Canary Islands through the Mediterranean to northwestern Russia and Western Asia. It has become invasive, when imported into the USA and Japan.


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