Mespilon

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Mesipilon Stephanus est zarurum ita putavit sed aliud est ut infra in za, mespilla vocatur arabice gubera.


Apparatus:

Mespilon | Mesipilon (-lõ A) AC
zarurum AC f | zarurũ p | zazurum ul’ zarurum B | rasurã zaroruʒ j | zarũ ms. e
za | ra j
mespila | mespilla AC
vocatur AC j | vocantur B efp
gubera (gub’ra p) ABC p | gubiera ms. e | glubeira f | Guberta j
arabice om. p
{gubera} uocãtur add. p
arabice gubera AC | g. a. B efj | g. uocãtur ms. p


Translation:

Mespilon, Stephanus believed that it was the same as zarurum, but it is something else as explained in the entry below Zaurur.


Commentary:

Stephanus in his Breviarium writes: Mespilõ … zahaturũ {‘r’ misread as ‘t’, i.e. < *zaharurũ } [[1]].

Mespilon:
Greek μέσπιλον /mespilon/ {“medlar (fruit)”} and μεσπίλη /mespílē/ {“medlar-tree”} (LSJ) is adopted into Latin as mespilum, mespila and mespilus.

zarurum:
see Zaurur

gubera: see Gubeira


Botanical remarks:

Mesipilon is identified by most modern authors with the “medlar tree”, Mespilus germanica L. [[2]], [[3]]. This bush/ tree was often confused with or at least seen – quite rightly - as related to the “Neapolitan medlar” or “azarole” Crataegus azarolus L. [[4]], [[5]], [[6]]. Thus the Greeks called the “azarole” μέσπιλον σητάνιον /méspilon sētánion// lit. “medlar of this year/ season”, possibly because the azarole’s fruit [[7]] can be eaten fresh contrary to the medlar’s fruit that cannot be eaten raw and needs bletting before consumption {i.e. going past its ripeness to the early stages of decay} [[8]], [[9]].

Simon is obviously not happy with Stephanus’s identification of Greek Mespilon {“medlar”} with Arabic ﺯﻋﺮﻭﺭ /zaʕrūr/ because the correct Arabic word - he says - is gubera and he refers the reader to his entry [[Zaurur}] q.v. The underlying problem is that ﺯﻋﺮﻭﺭ /zaʕrūr/ itself is botanically an ambiguous term and this ambiguity is reflected in the varying plant identifications medieval authors offer for this term.

WilfGunther (talk) 15:10, 21 October 2015 (BST)

See also Zaurur, Gubeira


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