Melan (2)

Melan Stephanus est medade et iam scis quod medad est attramentum scriptorum.

Apparatus:

Nb: Melan (1) and (Melan (2) are conflated into one single entry in B: Melan gr. nigrum step. est medade & iam scis quod medad est atrementum scriptorum.
Melan ABCD fjp | Melani ms. e
attramentum AD fj | atrementum B | atramentum C ep

Translation:

Greek melan {"ink"} is medade with Stephanus and you know already {i.e. from the prior entry Medad} that Arabic medad means in Latin atramentum {"any black liquid, ink"}.

Commentary:

Melan:
Greek μέλαν /mélan/, the neuter form of μέλας /mélas/ "black", is used to mean i.a. "ink".

medade:
Wehr (1976): ﻣﺪﺍﺩ /midād/ "ink; lamp oil; fertilizer", etc.

Stephanus in his Breviarium writes: melam … mededũ [[1]]
N.b. in Melam ‘n’ was misread as ‘m’, and in mededũ Stephanus gives the Arabic word a Latin ending.

WilfGunther 15/03/2014

See also: Atramentum, Medad

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