Blowing By. Lucilla caesar, Common Greenbottle Fly, on Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
If you want to read about derivations from Arabic words in English and Spanish you must go to a wonderful work by Jean Lauand, 'Palavras de origem Árabe dicionarizadas em Inglês e em Espanhol' (2012). The lemma for 'Taraxacum' will lead you back to Burhan-i-Qatî (or: -i-Kati), a lexicon of Persian with Arabic derivations and connections which was compliled by Muhammad Husayn ibn Khalaf Tabrizi Burhan in 1651 for his master, the ruler of Goconda, India. Lauand teaches us that the Latin 'Taraxacum' goes back on the medieval translator from the Arabic, Gerard of Cremona's (c.1114-1187) 'Tarascon', which he renders Latin from the Arabic 'Tarakhshaqoq/tarakhshaqun', which in turn comes from the Persian 'Talkh chakok' (I'm not quite sure whether the transcriptions are entirely in order, and haven't been able to look at the sources myself on internet). Whatever the case, that Persian word sounding (at least) like Talkh chakok means 'bitter herb'. And our Gerard clarifies 'Tarascon': 'it's a species of chicory'. We all know that Dandelion leaves have a similar bitter taste.
Curiously I associate bitter with Green. Perhaps it's because being a small Green Frog I'm not a cannibal. But here's a meat-loving Blowfly or Common Green Bottlefly, Lucilla caesar, on a Blowball, a Dandelion gone to seed.
Blowing By. Lucilla caesar, Common Greenbottle Fly, on Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
If you want to read about derivations from Arabic words in English and Spanish you must go to a wonderful work by Jean Lauand, 'Palavras de origem Árabe dicionarizadas em Inglês e em Espanhol' (2012). The lemma for 'Taraxacum' will lead you back to Burhan-i-Qatî (or: -i-Kati), a lexicon of Persian with Arabic derivations and connections which was compliled by Muhammad Husayn ibn Khalaf Tabrizi Burhan in 1651 for his master, the ruler of Goconda, India. Lauand teaches us that the Latin 'Taraxacum' goes back on the medieval translator from the Arabic, Gerard of Cremona's (c.1114-1187) 'Tarascon', which he renders Latin from the Arabic 'Tarakhshaqoq/tarakhshaqun', which in turn comes from the Persian 'Talkh chakok' (I'm not quite sure whether the transcriptions are entirely in order, and haven't been able to look at the sources myself on internet). Whatever the case, that Persian word sounding (at least) like Talkh chakok means 'bitter herb'. And our Gerard clarifies 'Tarascon': 'it's a species of chicory'. We all know that Dandelion leaves have a similar bitter taste.
Curiously I associate bitter with Green. Perhaps it's because being a small Green Frog I'm not a cannibal. But here's a meat-loving Blowfly or Common Green Bottlefly, Lucilla caesar, on a Blowball, a Dandelion gone to seed.