Glaus

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Glaus Plinius antiquitus eugulactum vocatur citiso et lenticule foliis simile aversa candidiora rami in terram serpunt quini senive admodum tenues a radice, flosculi purpurei exeunt, invenitur iuxta mare.


Apparatus:

In ms. p Glans, although it is the first word in the line, is not marked as the entry's initial.
Glaus AC ej | Glans fp {'u' misread as 'n'} | Glãs B {< Glans} | Glaux Pliny
eugulactum (-actũ A) AC | eugalaton (-lacõ ej) efj | engalaton B {'u' misread as 'n'} | eugalatio p | eugalacton Pliny
vocatur AC p | uocabatur B fj | vocabant ms. e
citiso AC f | ciriso (-sio e) B ep | ciroso j | cytiso Pliny
et AC Pliny | est B efjp
auersa | aduersa ep
candidiora | cãdiora p
quini seniue (-nise- C) AC | quini seni Pliny | qui (qui B) semine B jp | qui semile f | qui in seni ue ms .e
a radice B efjp Pliny | & radice AC
{mare} et cetera add. B jp


Translation:

Glaus, according to Pliny, was also called eugulactum in the old days; a plant with leaves similar to citisus {"tree-medick"} and lenticula {"lentil"} but on the underside the leaves are whiter, with five or six very thin branches that creep along the ground from the root. This plant is found by the sea.


Commentary:

Simon's entry is a near-verbatim excerpt from Pliny, 27, 58, 82, ed. Rackham (1938-63: VII.438).

glaux:
Latin glaux is loaned from Greek γλαύξ /glaúx/, Attic γλαῦξ /glaûx/ which can denote a certain owl, see entry Glaux, as well as a certain plant. The word is related to Greek γλαυκός /glaukós/ meaning "blue-green; bluish, grey-blue", presumably referring to the leaf colour of the plant.

quitis:
Simon's quitis is a corruption of Greek κύτισος /kýtisos/, Latinised cytisus or cytisum "a kind of clover' tree-medick". The foreshortened form quitis occurs already in Dioscorides Longobardus. The path of corruption was probably "qu" being used for the sound /k/ before /i/; Greek /y/ > /i/; and the commonly abbreviated ending –us was lost early on by some scribe: *quitisus > quitis and it multiplied from there. The word is of unclear etymology. See Citisum

eugulactum:
Pliny mentions a synonym: eugalacton from the Greek compound adjective ἐυγάλακτον /eugálakton/ consisting of ἐυ- /eu-/ {"good, well"} + -γάλακτ- /-gálakt-/ {"milk"} + -ον /-on/ an adjectival ending, altogether meaning "yielding/having much or good milk" (LSJ). Eugalacton as a synononym for glaux is only attested in Pliny.

Simon also has a very similar text to this entry, which is an excerpt from Dioscorides, so for further comment see Glis (2).

WilfGunther 21:00, 18 May 2015 (BST)


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