Notes

Druid

Druid. Also Druide, Druyd. [adopted from French druide (1512 in Hatzfeld and Darmesteter, Dictionnaire général de la langue française), adaptation of Latin *druida, ? druis, found only in pleural, druidæ, druides, in Greek druidai; adopted from Old Celtic dental-stem druid-, whence Old Irish drui, magician, sorcerer, Welsh dryw (also derwydd, perhaps not the same word). As to the ulterior etymology, see Holder, Alt.-Celt. Sprachschatz]

One of an order of men among the ancient Celts of Gaul and Britain, who, according to Cæsar were priests or religious ministers and teachers, but who figure in native Irish and Welsh legend as magicians, sorcerers, soothsayers, and the like. (The English use follows the Latin sources, whence it was derived, rather than native Celtic usage.) In early use always in plural.

Electra

Mélange d’or et d’argent.

electre

Le mot electrum (ἤλεχτρον des Anciens) désignait: 1° l’ambre jaune ou succin (Pline, XXXVII, 2); 2° un alliage de 4/5 d’or et 1/5 d’argent. (Pline XXXIII, 23). On donna depuis à ce dernier le nom de bas or, or blanc, or d’Allemagne (Du Pinet.) «Cum quinta argenti portio additur ad aurum, eam misturam electrum facticium possumus nominare» (Agricola, De nat. foss., l. VIII). Voir aussi sur l’Electrum ou asèm, alliage naturel d’or et d’argent, Barthelot, Introd. à l’étude de la chimie des anciens de tu moten âge, Paris Steinheil, 1889. (Paul Delaunay)

amber

amber. Forms: ambra, aumber, -ur, ambyr, ambre, awmer, amber. [adopted from French ambre, cognate with Provençal ambre, adopted from Arabic ayin.anbar, `ambergris,’ to which the name originally belonged; afterwards extended, through some confusion of the substances, to the fossil resin `amber.’ In French the two are distinguished as grey, and yellow amber, ambre gris (`ambre proprement dit’), and ambre jaune (succin); in modern English as amber-gris and amber.]

A product of the whale. Originally = ambergris. (In 17th century greece of amber, gris ambre, gray amber.) Obsolete

white amber (medieval Latin ambra alba): Spermaceti. [Confused with preceding, as the `sperm’ of a whale.] Obsolete
[Cf. 1598-1611 Florio, Ambra, amber, also amber greece, also the sperme of a Whale called Spermaceti. 1611 Randle Cotgrave, A dictionarie of the French and English tongues, Ambre blanc, white Amber.]

The resin.

A yellowish translucent fossil resin, found chiefly along the southern shores of the Baltic. It is used for ornaments; burns with an agreeable odour; often entombs the bodies of insects, etc.; and when rubbed becomes notably electric (so called from its Greek name hlektron). (See also lamber.)

ivory

ivory. Forms: iuor, yuor(e, -ere, iueer, iuoere, euor, yvoyre, yuer, euour, iv-, yvor(e, iuyr, iwr, yvoire, evour(e, evor(e, euir, euoir; ebure. [adopted from Old French yvoire (13th century), Norman French ivurie (12th century), iviere, yvyere (15th century), modern French ivoire: -Latin eboreus adj., from ebur, ebor– ivory: compare Coptic ebu ivory, Sanskrit ibhas elephant. The form ebure in Lyndesay is refashioned after the Latin.]

The hard, white, elastic, and fine-grained substance (being dentine of exceptional hardness) composing the main part of the tusks of the elephant, mammoth (fossil ivory), hippopotamus, walrus, and narwhal; it forms a very valuable article of commerce, being extensively employed as a material for many articles of use or ornament.

porphyry

porphyry. Forms: porfurie, -’urye, -forie, -phurye, -phiri(e, -firie. purfire, -fere, -fure; -phure, porphier, -phuer, -phir, -phyre, -phere, puphire, porphyr. porpherie, -phury, -phyrie, prophyry, purphorie, porphiry, porphyry. [The ultimate source of the word in all its forms is Greek porfuroj purple, porfura the purple-whelk, and its dye; but the stone was called in Greek porfurithj, Latin porphyrites, whence porphyrite. The Romantic names of the stone point however to late Latin forms *porphyrius, *porphyrus, purple (stone), or *porphyrium, *porphyrum: compare Romaic porfuron.]

The word used to render Latin porphyrites, Greek porfurithj, the name given to a beautiful and very hard rock anciently quarried in Egypt, composed of crystals of white or red plagioclase felspar embedded in a fine red ground-mass consisting of hornblende, plagioclase, apatite, thulite, and withamite, the last two being bright red in colour. By modern poets often used vaguely, in the sense of a beautiful and valuable purple stone taking a high polish, including red granite and marble. The site of the ancient quarries, after being long lost, was discovered by Burton and Wilkinson at Gebel Dokhan, near the Red Sea.

Notes

Delphinium

Dioscor. iii. 84.

delphinium

Δελφίνιον (Dioscoride, III, 84) de δελφιζ, dauphin, allusion à la forme du sépal supérieur. Delphinium Ajacis, L., du Midi, or D. consolida, L., vulg. pied d’alouette?

delphinium

delphinium

delphinium

delphinium. [Latin Delphinium, adopted from Greek delfinion larkspur (Dioscorides), diminutive of delfin dolphin (so named from the form of the nectary).]

A genus of plants, N.O. Ranunculaceæ, with handsome flowers of irregular form, comprising the common larkspur and many other species. The name is in ordinary horticultural use for the cultivated species and varieties.

Notes

Eryngium campestre L.

Eryngium campestre L.
Eryngium
Mansstrew

Eryngion

Pliny xxii. 7, § 8.

Eryngion

Clara in primis aculeatarum erynge est sive eryngion contra serpentes et venena omnia nascens. adversus ictus morsusque radix eius bibitur drachmae pondere in vino aut, si plerumque tales iniurias comitetur et febris, ex aqua. inlinitur plagis, peculiariter efficax contra chersydros ac ranas. vero omnibus contra toxica et aconita efficaciorem Heraclides medicus in iure anseris decoctam arbitratur. Apollodorus adversus toxica cum rana decoquit, ceteri in aqua. ipsa dura, fruticosa, spinosis foliis, caule geniculato, cubitali et maiore aliquando, alia albicans, alia nigra, radice odorata; et sativa quidem est, sed sponte nascitur in asperis et saxosis et in litoribus maris durior nigriorque, folio apii.

Especially famous among spinous plants is the erynge, or eryngion, that grows to counteract snake bites and all poisons. For stings and bites its root in doses of one drachma is taken in wine, or in water if (as usually happens) such injuries are also accompanied by fever. It is applied to the wounds, being a specific for those caused by amphibious snakes and frogs. Heraclides the physician is of opinion that boiled in goose broth it is more efficacious than any other remedy for aconite and other poisoning. Apollodorus would boil it with a frog for poisoning, the other authorities say in water only. The plant itself is hardy [Or “hard,” “tough.” The adjective durus has both meanings, and so much ambiguity is caused in a botanical context], bushy, with prickly leaves and jointed stem, a cubit high or occasionally taller, partly palish in colour, partly dark, and with a fragrant root. While it is a cultivated plant it also grows wild on rough, stony ground and on the sea shore, when it is more hardy and darker, with a leaf like that of celery.

eryngion

Eryngium, ἠρυγγιον, de ἤρυγγοζ, barbe de bouc ou de chèvre, allusion à l’aspect barbelé de la jeune pousse. — «Erynge… sive eryngion, contra serpentes et venena omnia nascent», dit Pline, XXII, 8, qui en décrit trois espèces: le blanc, notre E. campestre, L.; le noir, E. cyaneum, Sibth.; le maritime, E. maritimum, L.

eryngium

thus eryngium (or by Hellenic derivation, goat’s bear) which includes sea-holly…

par les admirables qualitez

Cf. encore, De latinis nominibus pour tous ces détails. Le seule exemple qui ne s’explique pas de soi-même est hieracia; «Hieracum nomen ex eo venit quod [l’epevier] succo hujus herbae oculorum obscuritatem discutiant». Eryngion (« barbe à bouc ») serait un contrepoison. Que-fait-il dans cette liste?

Eryngion

De ἤφνγγυζ, «barbe de bouc» (Pline, XXII, viii).

par les admirables qualitez

Puisés aux mêmes sources, tour ces détails sont clairs. Comme dans la liste précédente, Rabelais termine par des exemples qu’il n’explicite pas. Hieraca, plur. de hieracion, vient de Pline, XX, 7: cette plante passe pour bénéfique aux yeux de l’épervier (dit hierax en grec). L’érynge (eryngion) passe pour exciter à l’amour (Pline, XXII, 8; Manardi, Epistolae medicinales, XII, 4): s’est -on appliqué à y retrouver eros?

eryngium

eryngium. [modern Latin, formed on Latin eryngion, adopted from Greek hruggion.]

A hardy herbaceous perennial plant of the genus so called, belonging to the family Umbelliferæ, and bearing blue or white flowers.

eryngo [Immediate source uncertain: perhaps a corrupt adoption of Ital. or Spanish eringio, adaptation of Latin eryngion, adopted from Greek hruggion, diminutive of hruggoj the name of this plant, also a goat’s beard.]

The candied root of the Sea Holly (Eryngium maritimum), formerly used as a sweetmeat, and regarded as an aphrodisiac. Obsolete b In later use, the plant itself, or any other of the same genus. (In this sense the Latin eryngium was used by earlier writers.)

Notes

Carpasium

Pamphylium mare ignobilis insulas habet, Cilicium ex quinque maximis Cyprum ad ortum occasumque Ciliciae ac Syriae obiectam, quondam novem regnorum sedem. huius circuitum Timosthenes ccccxxvii d p. prodidit, Isidorusccclxxv longitudinem inter duo promunturia, Clidas et Acamanta, quod est ab occasu, Artemidorus clxii d, Timosthenes c͞c͞. vocatam antea Acamantida Philonides, Cerastim Xenagoras et Aspeliam et Amathusiam et Macariam, Astynomus Crypton et Colinian. oppida in ea xv, Neapaphos, Palaepaphos, Curias, Citium, Corinaeum, Salamis, Amathus, Lapethos, Soloe, Tamasos, Epidaurum, Chytri, Arsinoe, Carpasium, Golgoe; fuere et Cinyria, Mareum, Idalium.

The Cilician Sea has five of considerable size, among them Cyprus, which lies east and west off the coasts of Cilicia and Syria; it was formerly the seat of nine kingdoms. Its circumference is given by Timosthenes as measuring 427½ miles and by Isidore as 375 miles. Its length between the two capes of Clidae and Acamas, the latter at its west end, is given by Artemidorus as 162½ and by Timosthenes as 200 miles. According to Philonides it was previously called Acamantis, according to Xenagoras Cerastis and Aspelia and Amathusia and Macaria, and according to Astynomus Cryptos and Colinias. It contains 15 towns, New and Old Paphos, Curias, Citium, Corinaeum, Salamis, Amathus, Lapethos, Soloe, Tamasos, Epidaurus, Chytri, Arsinoe, Carpasium and Golgoe; and formerly there were also Cinyria, Mareum and Idalium.

Carpasian flax

Both the city [Athens] and the whole of the land are alike sacred to Athena; for even those who in their parishes have an established worship of other gods nevertheless hold Athena in honour. But the most holy symbol, that was so considered by all many years before the unification of the parishes, is the image of Athena which is on what is now called the Acropolis, but in early days the Polis (City). A legend concerning it says that it fell from heaven; whether this is true or not I shall not discuss. A golden lamp for the goddess was made by Callimachus [fl. 400 BC ?]. Having filled the lamp with oil, they wait until the same day next year, and the oil is sufficient for the lamp during the interval, although it is alight both day and night. The wick in it is of Carpasian flax [probably asbestos], the only kind of flax which is fire-proof, and a bronze palm above the lamp reaches to the roof and draws off the smoke. The Callimachus who made the lamp, although not of the first rank of artists, was yet of unparalleled cleverness, so that he was the first to drill holes through stones, and gave himself the title of Refiner of Art, or perhaps others gave the title and he adopted it as his.

Carpasie

Ville de Chypre

Foison en Carpasie

Voiez les Attiques de Pausanias.

Carpasia

See Pausanias’ Attics [?]

Carpasie

Voyez les Attiques de Pausanias. (L.) — Carpasium dans Pline, Carpasia dans Étienne le géographe, est une ville de l’île de Chypre, et une île de la Cilicie. Ce nom vient du latin carbasus, lin fort fin, voile de fin lin, carbasa, voile de navire. Aussi l’île de Carpasie offroit, du temps des Grecs et des Romains, un lieu de refraîchissement et un port ouvert à toutes les nations, qui venoient s’y ravitailler, et s’y fournir sur-tout de voiles et de cordages. Voyez La Martinière, au mot Carpasie ou Carbasie. « La plus vénérable de toutes les statues de Minerve, dit Pausanias, liv. I, chap. XXVI, est celle qui fut consacrée dans le quartier de la citadelle d’Athène. La renommée a publie que cette statue étoit tombée du ciel. On emplit d’huile, au commencement de chaque année, la lampe d’or qui brûle devant la déesse, sans qu’il soit besoin d’y toucher davantage, quoiqu’elle soit allumée jour et nuit : cela vient de ce que la mèche de cette lampe set faite de lin de Carpasie, le seul que le feu ne consume point. »

Carpasia

Carpasium (cf. v. 41) is a town in Cyprus (Pliny N.H. v. 31, § 35). [greek] , of which an unconsumable wick of a lamp was made, is mentioned in Pausanias, i. 26, § 7.

Carpasie

Carpasium, ville de Chypre. (Pline, V, 31.)

asbeston

Du grec ἄσδεστον, incombustible. Il n’y a aucune autre analogie que celle des possibilités textiles entre le chanvre et l’asbeste que Rabelais nomme pantagruelion asbestin. Confusion déjà commise par Pline, qui considère l’asbeste comme un var. incombustible du lin: «Inventum jam est etiam [linum] quod ignibus non absumeretur… Nascitur in desertis adustique sole Indiæ ubi non cadunt imbres… vocatur autem a Græcis asbestinum». Pline, XIX, 4. L’asbeste, ou amiante, est un var. filamenteuse (par altération) de l’amphibole trémolite, (silicate de chaux et de magnésie). Les filaments soyeux sont assez longs pour en permettre le tissage; les Anciens en faisaient des mèches perpétuelle pour leurs lampes, et des linceuls incombustibles pour recueillir la cendre des morts.

abeston

Rabelais suit toujours Pline, qui fait de l’asbeste une variété du lin. L’utilité du lin asbestin dans les crémations est mentionée par Pline (XIX, 4: « Inventus jam est etia [Linum] quod ignibus non absumeretur; regum inde funebres tunicae corporis favellam ab reliquo separant cineri. Nascitur in desertis adutisque Indiae locis. […] Vocatur autem a Graecis [greek], ex argumento naturae suae ». Le passage de Pline était bien connu; cf. P Vergile, De Inventoribus rerum, II, x. L’adjectif carpasien est le carbaseus (ou, carbasinus) des Latins ( = « ce qui est fait de lin ou de chanvre ».)

Carpasia

Selon Pline, XIX, 1, «ceste sorte de lin croist és deserts des Indes». D’où Rabelais a-t-il tiré les informations qu’il donne ici? «Carpasie» désigne, ou une ville de Chypre, ou plutôt une île située entre la Crète et Rhodes et plus connue sous le nom de Carpathos (Scarpanto). Cette mention veut sans doute indiquer l’origine de l’adjectif utilisé plus bas, «Carpasien», transcription du grec καρπάσιοζ ou καρπάσινοζ (= fait d’une sorte de gaze); Cœlius Rhodiginus, Antiquae Lectiones, XIV, 18, écrit, de même «linum carpasinum».

Notes

Cormier

Cormier: The Service tree, Sorb-apple tree.

Corm

corm, corme. Obsolete [adopted from French corme, Latin cornum the cornel-cherry (see cornel); but in Old French the names cormier and corme were applied to the service-tree and its fruit, also called sorbe; see Littré.]

The fruit of the service-tree, the sorb; also the tree, Pyrus domestica (Sorbus Latin, Cormus Spach).

The cornel tree.

corm. In botany [adaptation of modern Latin cormus (Willdenow c. 1800), adopted from Greek kormoj, the trunk of a tree with the boughs lopped off, formed on keirein to cut, poll, lop.]

A short fleshy rhizome, or bulb-like subterraneous stem of a monocotyledonous plant, producing from its upper surface leaves and buds, and from its lower, roots; also called solid bulb.(By Asa Gray applied also to the rhizomes of dicotyledonous plants such as cyclamen; but this is not generally followed.)

Notes

lodestone

Plutarch, Platonic Questions, book. vii., chapter 7 [No mention of garlic] “And neither amber nor the loadstone draws anything to it which is near, nor does anything spontaneously approach them. But this stone emits strong exhalations, by which the surrounding air being impelled forceth that which is before it; and this being drawn round in the circle, and returning into the vacuated place, forcibly draws the iron in the same movement. In amber there is a flammeous and spirituous nature, and this by rubbing on the surface is emitted by recluse passages, and does the same that the loadstone does. It also draws the lightest and driest of adjacent bodies, by reason of their tenuity and weakness; for it is not so strong nor so endued with weight and strength as to force much air and to act with violence and to have power over great bodies, as the magnet has. But what is the reason the air never draws a stone, nor wood, but iron only, to the loadstone? This is a common question both by those who think the coition of these bodies is made by the attraction of the loadstone, and by such as think it done by the incitement of the iron. Iron is neither so rare as wood, nor altogether so solid as gold or a stone; but has certain pores and asperities, which as far as inequality is concerned are proportionable to the air; and the air being received in certain positions, and having (as it were) certain stays to hang to, does not slip off; but when it is carried up to the stone and is forced against it, it draws the iron by force along with it to the stone. Such then may be the reason of this.”

Garlic to the Loadstone

Table-Talk II, Question 7

1. Once, when small fish of all sorts were served to us, Chaeremonianus of Tralles pointed out one with a sharp, elongated head and said that the echeneïs resembled it; he had seen (he said) the echeneis while sailing off Sicily and had been amazed at its power, for during the course of the voyage it had been responsible for no little loss of speed and delay until the look-out had caught it sticking to the outer face of the vessel’s hull. At this, some laughed at Chaeremonianus for accepting a mythical and unbelievable fabrication; others chatted about the “antipathies” [1]; and one could hear much else and also the following about things antipathetic: the sight of a ram stops a mad elephant; if you point an oak twig at a viper and touch it, the viper is brought to a standstill; a wild bull is quieted and made gentle if bound to a fig-tree [2]; amber moves and attracts all light things, except basil and whatever is wet with oil; the loadstone does not attract iron rubbed with garlic. Indeed these things are subject to a clear test, but it is hard (they said) to determine the cause, if not altogether impossible.

1. Bolus of Mendes, the former of Democritus exposed by Callimachus, wrote a Sympathies and Antipathies (in nature); see Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker, Demokritos 300. 1–5; cf. infra, iv. 2, 664 c.

lodestone

Book 1, Ch 1. But that the story of the loadstone might not appear too bare and too brief, to this singular and sole known quality there were added certain figments and falsehoods, which in the earliest times, no less than nowadays, used to be put forth by raw smatterers and copyists to be swallowed of men. As for instance, that if a loadstone be anointed with garlick, or if a diamond be near, it does not attract iron[5]. Tales of this sort occur in Pliny, and in Ptolemy’s Quadripartitum [Tetrabiblos]; and the errors have been sedulously propagated, and have gained ground (like ill weeds that grow apace) coming down even to our own day, through the writings of a host of men, who, to fill put their volumes to a proper bulk, write and copy out pages upon pages on this, that, and the other subject, of which they knew almost nothing for certain of their own experience.

[Note 5: Baptista Porta says (p. 211 of the English version of 1658): “It is a common Opinion amongst Sea-men, That Onyons and Garlick are at odds with the Loadstone: and Steers-men, and such as tend the Mariners Card are forbid to eat Onyons or Garlick, lest they make the Index of the Poles drunk. But when I tried all these things, found them to be false: for not onely breathing and belching upon the Loadstone after eating of Garlick, did not stop its vertues: but when it was all anoynted over with the juice of Garlick, it did perform its office as well as if it had never been touched with it: and I could observe almost not the least difference, lest I should make void the endeavours of the Ancients. And again, When I enquired of Marines, whether it were so, that they were forbid to eat Onyons and Garlick for that reason; they said, they were old Wives fables, and things ridiculous; and that Sea-men would sooner lose their lives, then abstain from eating Onyons and Garlick.”

The fables respecting the antipathy of garlick and of the diamond to the operation of the magnet, although already discredited by Ruellius and by Porta, died hard. In spite of the exposure and denunciations of Gilbert, these tales were oft repeated during the succeeding century. In the appendix to Sir Hugh Plat’s Jewel House of Art and Nature, in the edition of 1653, by D. B. Gent, it is stated there (p. 218): “The Loadstone which … hath an admirable vertue not onely to draw Iron to it self, but also to make any Iron upon which it is rubbed to draw iron also, it is written notwithstanding, that being rubbed with the juyce of Garlick, it loseth that vertue, and cannot then draw iron, as likewise if a Diamond be layed close unto it.”]

Gilbert, Book 1, Ch 14, p 32. Plutarch and Claudius Ptolemy[88], and all the copyists since their time, think that a loadstone smeared with garlick does not allure iron. Hence some suspect that garlick is of avail against any deleterious power of the magnet: thus in philosophy many false and idle conjectures arise from fables and falsehoods.

[Note 88: The garlick myth has already been referred to in the note to p. 1. The originals are Plutarch, Quæstiones Platonicæ, lib. vii., cap. 7, § 1; C. Ptolemæus, Opus Quadripartitum, bk. i., cap. 3. The English translation of the latter, by Whalley (London, 1701), p. 10, runs: “For if the Loadstone be Rubbed with Garlick, the Iron will not be drawn by it.”]

aymant

Aymant; as, Aimant; an Adamant, or Loadstone

aymant

Aymant, s.m. acier très dur: A trop peindre fault l’aymant. (Greban, Mist. de la passe., 1584)

Garlic to the Loadstone

Plut. Q. Conv ii. 7, 1, 641 c. iv 62, v. 37.

le ail à l’aymant

Légende antique: «La pierre d’aimant n’attire point le fer quant il est frottee d’ail», dit Plutarque en ces Symposiaques (l. II, quest. 7). Cf. ce que Rabelais dit plus loin (l. V, ch. 37) du Scordeon. Une écrivain médiéval, Philippe de Méaières, raconte encore que des nautionniers méridionaux ayant un jour frotté leur boussole, ou calamite, ils perdirent leur direction: car cette «souillure empêche l’aiguille de regarder l’étoile belle, clair et nette» (l’étoile polaire ou tramontane). (Paul Delaunay)

lodestone

Ch. 3 p. 27 “Similarly we must believe the physician, when he says that this sore will spread or cause putrefaction, and the miner, for instance, that the lodestone attracts iron; just as each of these, if left to itself through ignorance of the opposing forces, will inevitably develop as its original nature compels, but neither will the sore cause spreading or putrefaction if it receives preventive treatment, nor will the lodestone attract the iron if it is rubbed with garlic; [n 21] and these very deterrent measures also have their resisting power naturally and by fate; so also in the other cases, if further happenings to men are not known, or if they are known and the remedies are not applied, they will by all means follow the course of primary nature; but if they are recognized ahead of time and remedies are provided, again quite in accord with nature and fate, they either do not occur at all or are rendered less severe.” [Note 21 A current belief; compare Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, I, p 213, for an instance of its occurrence in Plutarch.]

Nenuphar…

Encore une fois, la plupart de ces exemples se retrouvent dans le De latinis nominibus de Charles Estienne. Le nenufar et la semence de saule sont des antiaphrodisiaques. La ferula servait, dans l’Antiquité, à fustiger les écoliers (cf. Martial, X, 62-10).

le ail, à l’aymant

Frotté d’ail, l’aimant n’attire plus le fer selon Plutarque, Symposium, II, vii.

Adamant

Adamant and similar words are used to refer to any especially hard substance, whether composed of diamond, some other gemstone, or some type of metal. Both adamant and diamond derive from the Greek word αδαμαστος (adamastos), meaning “untameable”. Adamantite and adamantium (a metallic name derived from the Neo-Latin ending -ium) are also common variants.
Adamantine has, throughout ancient history, referred to anything that was made of a very hard material. Virgil describes Tartarus as having a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine (Aeneid book VI). Later, by the Middle Ages, the term came to refer to diamond, as it was the hardest material then known, and remains the hardest non-synthetic material known.
It was in the Middle Ages, too, that adamantine hardness and the lodestone’s magnetic properties became confused and combined, leading to an alternate definition in which “adamant” means magnet, falsely derived from the Latin adamare, which means to love or be attached to.[1] Another connection was the belief that adamant (the diamond definition) could block the effects of a magnet. This was addressed in chapter III of Pseudodoxia Epidemica, for instance.
Since the word diamond is now used for the hardest gemstone, the increasingly archaic term “adamant” has a mostly poetic or figurative use. In that capacity, the name is frequently used in popular media and fiction to refer to a very hard substance

Notes

Cuscute

Cuscuta

Milium solis

Cuscuta (text)

cuscute

Plate caption: Cassutha
Flachss seiden
Taxon: Cuscuta epilinum Weihe
Modern English: flax dodder

cuscute

Miliaria appellatur herba quae necat milium. haec trita et cornu cum vino infusa podagras iumentorum dicitur sanare.

Miliaria is a plant so called because it kills millet. Pounded and poured with wine into a horna it is said to cure gouty pains in beasts of burden.

cuscute

Autre soin n’est requis aux Lins de là jusques à le cueillete, que de les descharger d’une meschante herbe appelle goutte de Lin ou pialet, en Latin Caflutha, qui s’entortille en leurs tiges, les suffoquant & gardant de s’accroistre.

Commentaire Historique au Chapitre LI

Par le détail très circonstancié que donne ici l’autheur, des effets et propriétés merveilleuses du pantagruélion, il ne laisse aucun doute sur ce que nous avons dit que cette herbe étoit le chanvre. La mention de la cuscute et les expressions suivantes, relatives au pantagruélion, suffiroirent seules pour le prouver.

cuscute

Plante parasite, qui s’attache au lin et au chanvre, et les étouffe.

cuscute

Cuscuta, vulgairement teignasse, cheveux de Vénus, genre de Cuscutacées, qui vit en parasite sur diverses plante. «Miliaria appellatur herba quæ necat milium», Pline, XXII, 78. C’est, pour Sainéan, Cuscuta europæa, L. Mais la cuscute du lin, qu’O. de Serres nomme pailer ou goutte de lin (Théâtre d’Agaric., l. VII), est la Cuscuta densiflora, S.W. (Paul Delaunay)

cuscute

Parasite végétal du lin.

cuscute

cuscus. Also cuskus. [The same word as couscous, the dish so called being originally made of this grain. In French couscou, in 18th century cuzcuz, cousse-couche, couche-couche.]

The grain of the African millet, Holcus spicatus Linn., Penicillaria spicata Willd., a cereal indigenous to Africa, where it has constituted from the earliest times an important article of food.

Notes

Buglossa

Ancusa

Ancusa (text)

Buglossa

Buglossa (text)

buglosse

De βούνλοσσζ, langue de bœuf: mot composé de βοϋζ[?], bœuf, et γλωσσα, langue.

bugloss

Nicander, Theriaca 541. Consider now the excellent root of albicius’s bugloss: its prickly leaves grow ever thick upon it.

Bugloss

Pliny xxv. 8, § 40.

buglosse

Iungitur huic buglossos boum linguae similis, cui praecipuum quod in vinum deiecta animi voluptates auget, et vocatur euphrosynum.

Akin to the plantain is buglossos, which is like the tongue of an ox. The most conspicuous quality of this is that thrown into wine it increases the exhilarating effect, and so it is also called euphrosynum, the plant that cheers.

buglossse

De βονζ, bœuf, γλωσσα, langue, allusion à l’aspect des feuilles: «bouglossos, boum linguæ similem,» dit Pline, XXV, 40. La buglosse de Pline est, pour Sprengel et Cazin, notre vulgaire bourrache, Borrago officinalis, L.; pour Fée, Anchisa paniculata, Ait. Sainéan (H. N. R., 122) rapporte la buglosse de Rabelais à Anchusa italica, Retz.

pas similitude

Toutes ces plantes, dans De latinis nominibus, sauf pour le delphinium.

Buglosse

De βοῦζ, «bœuf», et , γλὡσσα, «langue» (Pline, XXV, xl).

buglosse

bugloss. Forms: buglosse, buglose, buglos), bugloss. [adopted from French buglosse: Latin buglossa, adaptation of Greek bouglwssoj, formed on bouj ox + glwssa tongue, from the shape and roughness of the leaves.]

A name applied to several boraginaceous plants, particularly the small, corn, or field bugloss (Lycopsis or Anchusa arvensis); viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare), and other species of Echium; also by some old herbalists to Helminthia echioides, prickly ox-tongue.

Notes

Laurus

Laurus nobilis L.

Lorbeerbaum
Laurus
(Laurus nobilis L.)

Daphne

Daphne

Ov. Met i. 452-567.

Daphne

Now the first love of Phoebus was Daphne, daughter of Peneus, the river-god. It was no blind chance that gave this love, but the malicious wrath of Cupid. Delian Apollo, while still exulting over his conquest of the serpent, had seen him bending his bow with tight-drawn string, and had said: “What hast thou to do with the arms of men, thou wanton boy? That weapon befits my shoulders; for I have strength to give unerring wounds to the wild beasts, my foes, and have but now laid low the Python swollen with countless darts, covering whole acres with plague-engendering form. Do thou be content with thy torch to light the hidden fires of love, and lay not claim to my honours.” And to him Venus’ son replied: “Thy dart may pierce all things else, Apollo, but mine shall pierce thee; and by as much as all living things are less than deity, by so much less is thy glory than mine.” So saying he shook his wings and, dashing upward through the air, quickly alighted on the shady peak of Parnasus. There he took from his quiver two darts of opposite effect: one puts to flight, the other kindles the flame of love. The one which kindles love is of gold and has a sharp, gleaming point; the other is blunt and tipped with lead. This last the god fixed in the heart of Peneus’ daughter, but with the other he smote Apollo, piercing even unto the bones and marrow. Straightway he burned with love; but she fled the very name of love, rejoicing in the deep fastnesses of the woods, and in the spoils of beasts which she had snared, vying with the virgin Phoebe. A single fillet bound her locks all unarranged. Many sought her; but she, averse to all suitors, impatient of control and without thought for man, roamed the pathless woods, nor cared at all that Hymen, love, or wedlock might be. Often her father said: “Daughter, you owe me a son-in-law”; and often: “Daughter, you owe me grandsons.” But she, hating the wedding torch as if it were a thing of evil, would blush rosy red over her fair face, and, clinging around her father’s neck with coaxing arms, would say: “O father, dearest, grant me to enjoy perpetual virginity. Her father has already granted this to Diana.” He, indeed, yielded to her request. But that beauty of thine, Daphne, forbade the fulfilment of thy desire, and thy form fitted not with thy prayer. Phoebus loves Daphne at sight, and longs to wed her; and what he longs for, that he hopes; and his own gifts of prophecy deceive him. And as the stubble of the harvested grain is kindled, as hedges burn with the torches which some traveller has chanced to put too near, or has gone off and left at break of day, so was the god consumed with flames, so did he burn in all his heart, and feed his fruitless love on hope. He looks at her hair hanging down her neck in disarray, and says: “What if it were arrayed?” He gazes at her eyes gleaming like stars, he gazes upon her lips, which but to gaze on does not satisfy. He marvels at her fingers, hands, and wrists, and her arms, bare to the shoulder; and what is hid he deems still lovelier. But she flees him swifter than the fleeting breeze, nor does she stop when he calls after her: “O nymph, O Peneus’ daughter, stay! I who pursue thee am no enemy. Oh stay! So does the lamb flee from the wolf; the deer from the lion; so do doves on fluttering wing flee from the eagle; so every creature flees its foes. But love is the cause of my pursuit. Ah me! I fear that thou wilt fall, or brambles mar thy innocent limbs, and I be cause of pain to thee. The region here is rough through which thou hastenest. Run with less speed, I pray, and hold thy flight. I, too, will follow with less speed. Nay, stop and ask who thy lover is. I am no mountain-dweller, no shepherd I, no unkempt guardian here of flocks and herds. Thou knowest not, rash one, thou knowest not whom thou fleest, and for that reason dost thou flee. Mine is the Delphian land, and Claros, Tenedos, and the realm of Patara acknowledge me as lord. Jove is my father. By me what shall be, has been, and what is are all revealed; by me the lyre responds in harmony to song. My arrow is sure of aim, but oh, one arrow, surer than my own, has wounded my heart but now so fancy free. The art of medicine is my discovery. I am called Help-Bringer throughout the world, and all the potency of herbs is given unto me. Alas, that love is curable by no herbs, and the arts which heal all others cannot heal their lord!”

He would have said more, but the maiden pursued her frightened way and left him with his words unfinished, even in her desertion seeming fair. The winds bared her limbs, the opposing breezes set her garments a-flutter as she ran, and a light air flung her locks streaming behind her. Her beauty was enhanced by flight. But the chase drew to an end, for the youthful god would not longer waste his time in coaxing words, and urged on by love, he pursued at utmost speed. Just as when a Gallic hound has seen a hare in an open plain, and seeks his prey on flying feet, but the hare, safety; he, just about to fasten on her, now, even now thinks he has her, and grazes her very heels with his outstretched muzzle; but she knows not whether she be not already caught, and barely escapes from those sharp fangs and leaves behind the jaws just closing on her: so ran the god and maid, he sped by hope and she by fear. But he ran the more swiftly, borne on the wings of love, gave her no time to rest, hung over her fleeing shoulders and breathed on the hair that streamed over her neck. Now was her strength all gone, and, pale with fear and utterly overcome by the toil of her swift flight, seeing her father’s waters near, she cried: “O father, help! if your waters hold divinity; change and destroy this beauty by which I pleased o’er well.” Scarce had she thus prayed when a down-dragging numbness seized her limbs, and her soft sides were begirt with thin bark. Her hair was changed to leaves, her arms to branches. Her feet, but now so swift, grew fast in sluggish roots, and her head was now but a tree’s top. Her gleaming beauty alone remained.
But even now in this new form Apollo loved her; and placing his hand upon the trunk, he felt the heart still fluttering beneath the bark. He embraced the branches as if human limbs, and pressed his lips upon the wood. But even the wood shrank from his kisses. And the god cried out to this: “Since thou canst not be my bride, thou shalt at least be my tree. My hair, my lyre, my quiver shall always be entwined with thee, O laurel. With thee shall Roman generals wreathe their heads, when shouts of joy shall acclaim their triumph, and long processions climb the Capitol. Thou at Augustus’ portals shalt stand a trusty guardian, and keep watch over the civic crown of oak which hangs between. And as my head is ever young and my locks unshorn, so do thou keep the beauty of thy leaves perpetual.” Paean was done. The laurel waved her new-made branches, and seemed to move her head-like top in full consent.

laurier, de Daphne

Laurus nobilis L. Laurier (Lauracée.) Selon la fable, Daphné, fille du fleuve Pénée, fuyant les poursuites d’Apollon, fut métamorphosée en laurier par les dieux.

Primus amor Phœbi Daphne Peneia…
—Ovide, Mét., I, 452

daphne

Thus daphne, or laurel, after Daphne, the nymph who escaped Apollo’s pursuit by the metamorphosis…

Daphné

Ovide, Métamorphoses, I, v. 452; Daphné, fuyant les poursuivres d’Apollon, fut changée en laurier.

par Metamorphose d’hommes et femmes…

Dans son Officina, Ravisius Textor dresse une longue liste des «Mutati in varias formas» ou l’on trouve Daphné, Narcisse, Crocus (safran) et Smilax. L’origine attribuee au myrte est rapportée par les commentateurs de Dioscoride; celle de pitys (le pin), par Lucien, Dial. des dieux, 22,4, et par les Géoponiques, mais aussi par Cœlius Rhodingus, Antiquae Lectiones, XXV, 2. Celle de cinara (l’artichaut) est dans le livre d’Estienne.

Daphné

Daphne [Greek dafnh the laurel or bay-tree: in Mythology a nymph fabled to have been metamorphosed into a laurel.]

The laurel.