Ginga

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Ginga a musione capitulo de fluxu menstruorum inter herbas frigidas numeratur invenio in antiquis synonimis ginda quod est iusquiamum an sit idem nescio.


Apparatus:

Ginga | Giinga j
menstruorum | mestruorum p
numeratur | numerat ejp
synonimis (synonoĩs j; synoĩs p) AC jp | sinonĩs (-noĩs e; -nois) B ef
ginda AC fj | guida B ep {rubricated in p}
nescio | hoc ignoro j


Translation:

Ginga is counted by Mustio in his chapter "On menstrual flow" to be among the cooling herbs; I find it in some book of ancient synonyms in the form ginda which is in Latin iusquiamus, but I do not know whether they are the same.


Commentary:

Simon must be alluding to Mustio's capitulum X: De sanguinatione matricis, i.e. "On bleedings of the uterus", ed. Rose (1882: 67 ff.), where on p. 69, §41,, line 20 [[1]] the herb is mentioned as part of a herbal mixture used in a plaster for stopping uterine haemorrhage caused by birth, abortion or ulcer in the womb rather than menstrual flow. It is the same recipe where Zenzur is mentioned.

Ginga:
It seems that ultimately the word can be traced to only one source, i.e. Ps.-Apuleius, HERBA SIMFONIACA, 4, ed. Howald (1927: 33) [[2]], where in the section on synonyms it says: Nomina herbae: A Graecis dicitur iosciamum - "{Herba simfoniaca} is called iusquiamus by the Greeks", and in some mss. this is added: Punici gingan {sc. vocant} - "the Phoenicians say ginga for it". It is one of the African herb names that are found in Mustio.

André (1985: 110) says that ginga is of Hamitic origin and he quotes some Berber forms: quingatt, gingez, cf. L. Trabut, Répertoire des noms indigènes des plantes spontanées, cultivées et utilisées dans le nord de l'Afrique. Trabut (1935: 131), s.v. H. niger Jusquiame noire : Guenqitt - Qingatt - Gingez... [[3]].

The form ginda which Simon found in some ancients book of synonyms is very probably merely a corruption of ginga due to a scribal error.

Iusquiamus:
Iusquiamus is a form used in popular Latin for the more educated hyoscyamus, which in turn is borrowed from Greek ὑοσκύαμος /hyoskýamos/, a plant normally identified as belonging to some species of the genus Hyoscyamus, "flea-bane".


WilfGunther 21/11/2013


See also: Iusquiamus


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