Thanks for your thoughts picen].
Your idea that acilwn could have derived ultimately from the Persian word, which came into English as lazuli (lapis is Latin for stone) is intriguing. I can certainly see how the word could have been transmitted from the Persian lazhward into Arabic lazward then into Greek and subsequently Coptic via Latin lazulum just as it has done in European languages. Interestingly, all the major modern European languages that adopted the word dropped the initial l from the Latin word, leaving English azure, Spanish azul,
Italian azzurro, French azur and German azurblau. Although there appears to be no trace of the Greek language having loaned this word (Greek κυανός being equivalent to English azure), hypothetically if Greek speaking people had at one stage adopted the word into their vernacular, I think it would be fair to assume that they would also have dropped the initial l. If then these Greek speaking people had retained the medial l sound in the Latin lazulum, surviving in any European languages only through Spanish azul and replaced the Latin ending um with the Greek on (Im not familiar with the grammar of either) then what is left is a word pronounced azulon. It is now not too difficult to see how azulon
could have changed into Coptic acilwn (pronounced asilōn) either in its transmission into the native phonetics of Egypt or due to changes in the phonemes of the word at an antecedent stage.
Although in theory this etymology is possible, the absolute proof would be to find the Greek intermediate in attested literature. As I mentioned earlier, I have not been able to find this word in the Greek dictionaries that I have consulted, perhaps partly due to my unfamiliarity with the language. However, I think it is plausible that (i) the word was used in Greek for only a brief period of time and subsequently fell into disuse or perhaps more likely (ii) came into use among Greek speaking people in Egypt or any other Hellenised region rather than Greece itself and was ultimately adopted by Copts into their native language along with many other words having originated in the Greek language.
Perhaps someone familiar with the Greek of the first few centuries AD up to the 14th century, particularly in the locality of Egypt could shed some more light?
Ambrose.
Font used: CS Copto Manuscript
Source: Lapis lazuli, Wikipedia
Dear Ambrose, Dear Remenkimi, I wonder if anyone can tell me what the origin of the word acilwn (or acilon) blue is. It is found in several Bohairic dictionaries, among them the modern dictionaries Adeeb Makars Coptic-English dictionary and Madgi Ayyad Youseffs Arabic-Coptic dictionary and others besides. In addition, the same word written pi`acilwn is found in Athanasius Kirchers trilingual Lingua aegyptiaca restituta (a transcription and Latin translation of Abu l-Barakats 13/14th century al-sullam al-kabir or
scala magna from Vat. copt. 71). The word however, to my knowledge is not found anywhere in the Sahidic or Bohairic versions of the Bible (certainly not in the NT), wherein the adopted Greek word huakin;inon (from õÜêéíèéíïò meaning hyacinth) is used to denote the colour blue. This indicates that the word came into use sometime between the first few centuries and the 13/14th century of the Christian era. The word acilwn is not found in Crums dictionary, which indicates that the word is probably not of Egyptian origin. Furthermore, Kasser and Vycichls Coptic-French dictionary indicates the possibility that acilwn is a Bohairic word and is perhaps adopted from a Greek word for a certain blue-green mineral, but is not able to supply a definite Greek etymology. All of this, plus the common Greek termination of the word (i.e. wn and on) indicates that acilwn is not a word of Egyptian origin. So does anyone know what the etymology of this (solely?) Bohairic word is? Is there a Greek word, perhaps for a blue-green mineral that acilwn may have been derived? If not, are there any other possible etymologies; Semitic or Latin? Perhaps, it is an Egyptian word after all, which has developed from an obscure root? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Regards, Ambrose. Font used: CS Copto Manuscript
From: Bashandy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: RemEnKimi@yahoogroups.com
To: RemEnKimi@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [RemEnKimi] Etymology of Coptic acilwn meaning 'blue'
Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2006 22:50:22 +0200
The word acilwn is one of the troublesome words. It was mentioned in Scala Magna. No etymological origin was mentioned. The word was not mentioned in Crum. Other folk dictionaries like Magdy Ayyad & Adeeb Makar do not mention etyomlogy.
The closest words to it are the lapis lazuli (Azure)(azul/
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