FROM DICTIONARY OF MEDIEVAL LATIN IN CZECH LANDS: ABARENO AND KILOKA

The main aim of this article is to identify the origin and meaning of two Latin zoological terms in the works of Thomas of Cantimpre and Czech medieval lexicographer Bartholomaeus de Solencia dictus Claretus. Both works employ names of animals that are extremely difficult to interpret either semantically or linguistically and whose Greek or Latin origin is not immediately clear. Most of them are attached to animals the description of which Thomas claims to be derived from Aristotle. Thomas used the Latin translation of the Aristotle's work Historia animalium translated from Arabic by Michael Scotus. Due to phonetical differencies between these languages as well as inaccuracies and mistakes in both translations, the text of Aristotle and the forms of the original Greek names were variously modified. Aristotle's term alpha upsilon epsilon rho iota nu eta, denoting a mediterranean fish sand smelt (Atherina hepsetus Linne), appears at Michael Scotus as abereni and abarino, at Thomas of Cantimpre in the form abarenon and at Claretus in the form abareno; Aristotle's term alpha chi alpha lambda eta phi eta, used by Aristotle to describe a sea anemone (probably Actinia equina Linn), appears at Michael Scotus as akaleki, at Thomas of Cantimpre in the form kylok and by Claretus in the form kiloka.