Kamse orach

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Kamse orach arabice quinque folia pentafilon grece.


Apparatus:

Kamse AC | Karmse f | Kamsser e | Kaise B

orach ABC f | arahech e

pentafilon (pẽta- B) ABC e | penthafilon f


Translation:

Kamse orach is Arabic for Latin quinque folia {"cinque-foil"} and Greek pentafilon.


Commentary:

The names in all three languages mean literally "five leaves"; e.g. ﺧﻤﺴﺔ ﺍﻭﺭﺍﻖ /ḫamsah aurāq/ (lit.) "five leaves" consists of ﺧﻤﺴﺔ /ḫamsah/ (ﺧﻤﺴ /ḫams/) "five" and ﻭﺭﻖ /waraq/ (coll.; n.un.); pl. ﺍﻭﺭﺍﻖ /aurāq/, dialect Arabic /ōrāq/ "foliage, leafage, leaves; paper".

Latin quinquefolium < quinque "five" + folium "leaf".

Greek πεντάφυλλον /pentáphyllon/ < πέντε /pénte/ "five" + φύλλον /phyllon/ "leaf". The Greek word, which occurs already in the Corpus Hippocraticum and in Theophrastus, is presumably the source of the Latin and Arabic names, which were calqued on the Greek term.


Botanical identification:

The plant is generally identified with one of the members of the Potentilla genus [[1]].

Wilf Gunther 06/12/13


See also: Pentafilon, Quinquefolium

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