Fisa
Fisa grece ventositas fisima grece flatus fisioma tumor.
Apparatus:
fisima ABC f | fissima e
{fisima} grece om. f
fisioma B f | fissioma e | fisoma AC
In ms. f the words Fisa, fisima, fisioma are each rubricated.
Translation:
Fisa is Greek for Latin ventositas {"flatulence"}, fisima is Greek for flatus {"wind"}, and fisioma means "puffing, swelling, inflation".
Commentary:
Simon is referring to Greek φῦσα /phŷsa/ "pair of bellows; breath, wind, blast; flatus" (LSJ); φύσημα /phýsēma/ "that which is blown" (LSJ), and φυσίωμα /physíōma/ "a puffing up, inflation"; the latter is not listed in LSJ with this meaning. However, E. A. Sophocles equates φυσίωμα /physíōma/ with φυσίωσις /physíōsis/ glossed in both dictionaries as "inflation".
Nb: φυσίωμα /physíōma/ (LSJ) and φυσίωσις /physíōsis/ (LSJ) can also be derived from φύσις "nature", and then they mean "natural tendency", etc. Although the derivatives from φῦσα /phŷsa/ {"blast"} and φύσις {"nature"} are spelt the same, they were pronounced differently in classic Greek, i.e. /phȳs-/ {"blast"} and /phўs-/ {"nature"}. However vowel length was lost as early as in the Koine period of Greek (c.300 BC to 300 AD.}
Simon's forms have undergone two sound changes characteristic of later Greek:
υ > ι {/y/ > /i/}, which applies to all three words, /físa/, /físima/, /fisíoma/; and
η > ι {/ē/ > /i/}, which applies to /físima/.
Wilf Gunther 17/11/13
