The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville - Pot-pourri

348 XVII.vii.69–viii.6 Isidore of Seville
olives is called ‘common.’ Of these, the one primarily
used for human consumption is the Spanish, second the
green, third the common. 69. Theamurca of olive oil
is the watery part, so called from ‘emerging’ (emergere),
that is, because it sinks (mergere)belowthe oil, and it is
the oil’s dregs. The Greeks call this , borrowing
the word from Latin.
70.Gum(gummi)isaGreekterm; they call it . 71.
The Greeks call resin (resina) , for (“flow”)
in Greek means whatever flows. It is the ‘tears’ given
off from the ‘sweat’ of wood from such trees as cherry,
mastic, balsam, or other trees or bushes that are said to
‘sweat,’ like the odoriferous woods of the orient, such
as the sap of balsam and of fennel or of amber, whose
‘tears’ harden into a gem. The chief resin is turpentine
(terebinthina), the best ofall;itisimportedfromArabia
Petraea, Judea, and Syria, from Cyprus and Africa, and
from the Cycladean islands. Second best is the resin of
the mastic tree, which is called mastix; this is imported
from the island of Chios. Third pine resin, of which one
is ,theother ,the one liquid, the other
dry. These are imported from Tyrrhenian Colophonia,
whence it has taken the name Colophonian resin.
72. Pitch(pix) isaGreekword,which they call .
Others would have it that pitch is named from ‘pine’
(pinus). It is called (cf. , “twig”) by the
Greeks; wecancall it ramalis (lit. “branch-like”). The
preferred type of this is clear, smooth, and clean.
73. Thereare three methods of natural creation of
trees: either they grow spontaneously, or they spring
from seeds that happen to be lying on the ground, or
they sprout from roots. Human skill came upon the other
methods with the aid of nature. 74. All fruits 16 in Latin
are as a rule of feminine gender, with a few exceptions,
such as the masculine oleaster (“wild olive”) and neuter
siler (“osier”); soVergil(Geo. 2.12):
The soft osier (Molle siler).
Likewise buxum (“box tree”) is neuter, although it may
also be treated as feminine. Some would make a superfluous
distinction, so that we would speak of the box tree
in the feminine, but of boxwood in the neuter.
viii. Aromatic trees (De aromaticis arboribus) 1.
Spices are whatever India or Arabia or other regions produce
that have a fragrant scent. They seem to have gotten
the name ‘spice’ (aroma)either because they are proper
for putting on altars (ara) forinvocations to the gods,
or because they are known to blend and mingle themselves
with air (aer). Indeed, what is scent if not air that
has been tinctured by something? 2. Frankincense (tus)
is a huge and well-branched tree of Arabia, with very
smooth bark and branches like the maple’s, dripping a
white, aromatic sap, like an almond tree, that is turned
into apowderbychewing.Whenitisbrokenitisoily
on the inside, and when set on fire it burns easily. Also
we call it masculum because it is spherical in its nature
like testicles (cf. masculus, “male”). Another type is flat
and almost scaly, of lesser quality. It may be adulterated,
mixed with resin or gum, but it can be distinguished by
its properties, for frankincense, set on fire, burns, while
resin fumes, but gum liquefies when heated. 3.Frankincense
(tus)issocalled from ‘crushing’ (tundere). It is also
called libanum after the mountain of Arabia where the
Sabaeans dwell, for their mountain, where frankincense
is gathered, is called Libanus.
4. Myrrh(myrra) isatreeofArabia,five cubits high,
and is like the thorn that they call (“acanthus”).
Its sap is green and bitter (amarus), whence it takes the
name myrra. The sap that flows spontaneously is more
precious, while that drawn out by slashing the bark is
considered poorer. From myrrh’s prunings the Arabs
feed their fires, and unless they counteract it with the
odor of storax, they contract many incurable diseases
from its highly noxious smoke. Troglodyte myrrh is so
called from an Arabian island where a better and purer
form is gathered. 5. Thestorax (storax) isatreeofArabia,
similar to the quince, whose shoots exude sap from
their crevices during the rising of the dog star. When
its distillate falls to the ground it is unclean, but when
it is preserved in its own bark, it is clean. The distillate
clinging to rods and reeds is clean and whitish, but then
becomes yellowed because of the sun. The storax itself is
reedy, oily, resinous, of pleasant odor, and moist, and it
emits a sort of honey-like liquid. Moreover, storax is so
called because the sap of this tree flows and is solidified,
for the Greeks call a drop of sap an ‘icicle’ (stiria). In
Greek the tree is called ,inLatin, storax.
6. Bdellium is a tree of India and Arabia, and the sap of
the Arabic type is better. It is clear, whitish, smooth, oily,
16 A scribal error of omission, preserved in Lindsay’s edition;
rather read, “In Latin, people speak of all fruits as of neuter gender,
but of trees for the most part as of feminine, with a few ...”