Kinabar

From Simon Online
Jump to: navigation, search

Kinabar grece cinabrium, Stephanus kinabari zerafarum pro zengifur.


Apparatus:

Kinabar (Kĩa- B) ABC jp | Kinnabar ef
grece | g’ expunged in j
cinabrium Stephanus kinabari om. j
cinabrium | cinabriuʒ f
{cinabriũ) mss. fp add attempt to write κιννάβαρι /kinnábari/ in Greek script
kinabari AC, rubricated in p | kinnabari rubricated in f | kĩnabari B | kinnabi ms. e
zerafarũ AC | zeiafarũ (-farum B fp) B efp | zazefarum j
zengifur (zẽgi- A) ABC fp | zeugifur j | gengifur e


Translation:

Kinabar is Greek for Latin cinabrium {“cinnabar”}; Stephanus writes that the equivalent of Greek kinabari in Arabic is zerafarum, his version of the real Arabic zengifur.


Commentary:

Kinabar:
In more classical Greek the forms κιννάβαρι /kinnábari/ or κιννάβαρις /kinnábaris/ were used, whereas Simon here has the apocopate form κιννάβαρ /kinnábar/, for which see also Cinabar. The word means “cinnabar, bisulphuret of mercury, whence vermilion is obtained” (LSJ).

Κιννάβαρι(ς) /Kinnábari(s)/ is a loan word of unknown origin. It was adopted into Latin as cinnabari(s), later in medieval Latin a form cinabrium and its variants appear and become popular.

Throughout Greek and Roman antiquity and beyond this metal ore was confused with a plant resin of a similar colour, often called “dragon’s blood”, see Sanguis draconis.

WilfGunther (talk) 17:46, 21 January 2016 (GMT)

See also Cinabar
For cinabrium see Cinabar
For Stephanus’ gloss see Zengifur


Next entry