Greek μάρις – a Forgotten Name for Long Pepper
Uniwersytet Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7179-7756
The Greek word μάρις ‘long pepper (Piper longum L.)’ that is attested in the lexicon of Hesychius (μ 289) has not been the subject of any research to date. The author’s hypothesis is that it is ultimately of Indo-Aryan origin (cf. Sanskrit marī̆ca- m. ‘pepper shrub’, marī̆ca- n. ‘black pepper’, Pali marica- n. ‘id.’, Prakrit maria-, miria- m./n. ‘id.’, etc.). However, it is difficult to say whether the Greeks borrowed μάρις directly from a language spoken in India or via another Oriental language (perhaps Iranian; cf. Modern Persian marič (mareč, murč) ‘pepper’).
Greek μάρις – a Forgotten Name for Long Pepper
Das griechische Wort μάρις ‚langer Pfeffer (Piper longum L.)‘, das im Lexikon des Hesychius (μ 289) belegt ist, wurde bislang noch nicht untersucht. Der Autor stellt die Hypothese auf, dass es letztlich indoarischen Ursprungs ist (vgl. sanskr. marī̆ca- m. ‚Pfefferstrauch‘, marī̆ca- n. ‚schwarzer Pfeffer‘, pal. marica- n. ‚ds.‘, prakr. maria-, miria- m./n. ‚ds.‘ usw.). Es ist jedoch nicht klar, ob die Griechen μάρις direkt aus einer in Indien gesprochenen Sprache oder über eine andere orientalische (iranische?) Sprache übernommen haben (vgl. npers. marič (mareč, murč)‚ Pfeffer‘).
Keywords: pepper in antiquity, etymology, language contacts, foreign words in Greek, Indo-Aryan languages, Greek lexicography
Schlagwörter: Pfeffer in der Antike, Etymologie, Sprachkontakte, Fremdwörter im Griechischen, indoarische Sprachen, griechische Lexikographie
Słowa klucze: pieprz w starożytności, etymologia, kontakty językowe, wyrazy obce w grece, języki indoaryjskie, leksykografia grecka
In Greek literature, pepper appears since the Classical period under the name πέπερι.[1] We know that the term could mean both ‘black pepper (Piper nigrum L.)’ and ‘long pepper (Piper longum L.)’, as described by Theophrastus in his Enquiry into Plants (HP IX 20.1; ed. S. Amigues):
Τὸ δὴ πέπερι καρπὸς μέν ἐστι διττὸν δὲ αὐτοῦ τὸ γένος· τὸ μὲν γὰρ στρογγύλον ὥσπερ ὄροβος, κέλυφος ἔχον καὶ σάρκα καθάπερ αἱ δαφνίδες, ὑπέρυθρον· τὸ δὲ πρόμηκες μέλαν σπερμάτια μηκωνικὰ ἔχον· ἰσχυρότερον δὲ πολὺ τοῦτο θατέρου.
Pepper is a fruit, and there are two kinds: one is round like bitter vetch, having a case and flesh like the berries of bay, and it is reddish: the other is elongated and black and has seeds like those of poppy: and this kind is much stronger than the other.[2]
Occasionally, the long pepper is also called πέπερι μακρόν or μακρὸν πέπερι n.[3], as well as μακροπέπερι n.[4]
The ancients knew that pepper originated in India. This is attested to by authors such as Dioscorides, who mentions it in his work On Medical Material (II 159; ed. M. Wellmann):
πέπερι δένδρον ἱστορεῖται φυόμενον ἐν ᾿Ινδίᾳ (...).
The pepper is said to be a tree that grows in India.[5]
Pliny the Elder writes a little more on the subject (NH XII 26; ed. C. Mayhoff):
Passim (scil. in India) vero quae piper gignunt iunipiris nostris similes, quamquam in fronte Caucasi solibus opposita gigni tantum eas aliqui tradidere.
But trees resembling our junipers that bear pepper occur everywhere (scil. in India), although some writers have reported that they only grow on the southern face of the Caucasus (scil. Indian Caucasus, i.e. Hindu Kush).[6]
Interestingly, the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea reports that the black pepper was imported from south-western India, while the long pepper came from north-western India.[7]
As for the etymology of πέπερι, it is a communis opinio that the word ultimately comes from the languages spoken in India.[8] Its counterparts are well attested in Indo-Aryan: Sanskrit pippalī- f. ‘berry; long pepper (Piper longum L.)’, Pali pippala- m. ‘pepper’, pipphalī- f. ‘long pepper (Piper longum L.)’, Prakrit pippalī̆-, pipparī- f. ‘id.’, Gujarati pīpar f. ‘id.’[9] However, it is not certain from which language the name of pepper found its way into Greek. This is a Wanderwort that is also found in other Oriental languages, e.g. Sogdian paδpaδ ‘pepper’, Modern Persian pilpil ‘id.’, Armenian płpeł ‘id.’, Jewish Aramaic pylpl, pilplā, pîlpaltā, pilpaltā, pîrpaltā ‘id.’, Mandaic pilpil ‘id.’, Syriac pelplā ‘id.’, Arabic fulful, filfil ‘id.’.[10]
In the context of pepper, it is somewhat surprising that researchers have not yet paid attention to another Greek term for it, which is attested in the lexicon of Hesychius. The lexeme probably goes unnoticed because it occurs together with a well-known loanword. The complete entry is as follows (μ 289; ed. K. Latte, I.C. Cunningham):
μάρις· [τὸν] ἓξ κοτύλας. καλεῖται δὲ ὁμωνύμως καὶ τὸ μακρὸν πέπερι.
Maris: six kotylai. The long pepper is also called by the same name.
There are two homonyms here, the first of which is μάρις, -εως (nom. pl. μάριεις, μάριες) m. ‘maris, a liquid measure (with different volumes)’. According to Hesychius, as well as Aristotle (HA 596a6-7) and Pollux (IV 168; cf. X 184), this unit is equal to 6 (probably Attic) kotylai, or about 1.6 litres, although some sources give a much higher volume for it, approximately 11 litres or even 33 litres.[11] The name of the measure, which appears in Greek sources from around 500 BCE[12], is originally Iranian, although it is not impossible that it entered Greek through the medium of Aramaic. As far as its etymology is concerned, the following forms are particularly noteworthy: Elamite mar-ri-iš ‘jug as a liquid measure (≈ 10 litres)’ (probably from Old Persian), Parthian mry ‘a liquid measure’, Official Aramaic mry ‘id.’ (probably from Iranian) and Armenian mar ‘id.’ (from Iranian).[13]
The noun μάρις as ‘long pepper (Piper longum L.)’ is not attested in other Greek sources and we do not know from which text it was taken by Hesychius. M. Schmidt (1863: 1013) included the entire entry in his editio minor of Hesychius, suggesting that the word 2nd lexicon (2nd cent. CE)[14], but this cannot be verified. We are also unable to determine the grammatical gender of this noun (masculine or feminine?). As regards the etymology of μάρις, the fact that pepper grows in India suggests that its name may have originated there. And indeed, in the Indo-Aryan languages we find similar lexemes, namely Sanskrit marī̆ca- m. ‘pepper shrub’, marī̆ca- n. ‘black pepper’, Pali marica- n. ‘id.’, Prakrit maria-, miria- m./n. ‘id.’, Gujarati marī- f. ‘id.’, Hindi mirī, maric, miric, mirc f. ‘id.’, etc. (Monier-Williams 1899: 790; Davids et al. 1921–1925: 524; Turner 1962–1966: 567; Mayrhofer 1956–1980: vol. II, 588; vol. III, 775; 1992–2001: vol. II, 321). This term for pepper has also been borrowed into other languages, e.g. Modern Persian marič (mareč, murč) ‘pepper’[15] (from Indo-Aryan), Kyrgyz and Uzbek murč ‘id.’[16] (probably from Modern Persian), Khmer mrɨc ‘id.’[17] (probably from Indo-Aryan)[18]; moreover, cf. similar forms in Dravidian: Tamil miḷaku ‘black pepper’, Malayalam miḷaku, muḷaku ‘pepper’, etc. (Burrow, Emeneau 1984: 434).
Based on the linguistic data, we can hypothesise that the name μάρις is of Indo-Aryan origin. It is possible that the word comes directly from a language spoken in India (cf. the Prakrit and Gujarati forms), but an intermediary cannot be ruled out. First of all, one may wonder whether the Middle Iranian form *marič might not have been the source of μάρις (with the rendering of the foreign voiceless affricate č /t͡ʃ/ by the voiceless fricative in Greek). In terms of semantics, there is a slight difference between the Oriental words meaning ‘black pepper’ and Greek μάρις meaning ‘long pepper’. This is not a problem, however, because both species could be referred to by the same word, as πέπερι and its equivalents in Oriental languages show.
The above considerations lead to the conclusion that, in addition to the well-known term πέπερι (along with πέπερι μακρόν, μακρὸν πέπερι and μακροπέπερι), the Greeks had μάρις for ‘long pepper (Piper longum L.)’, the sources of which can be found in the Indo-Aryan languages. We do not know whether the Greeks took the word directly from the people of India or perhaps via another language spoken in Asia (perhaps Iranian). Interestingly, μάρις has not been the subject of any research to date. The paper therefore complements both etymological dictionaries of the Greek language[19] and, especially, M. Brust’s (2008) comprehensive book on Iranian and Indian words in Greek.
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland (research project no. UMO-2020/39/B/HS2/00934).
Autorzy
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Footnotes
- 1 The oldest sources are: Hp. Mul. 1.34, 1.37, 1.81, etc. (this treatise is dated to the 5th/4th cent. BCE); Arist. Poet. 1458a16; Antiph. 275 (ed. R. Kassel, C. Austin).
- 2 Translated by Hort 1916: 315.
- 3 PME 49; Dsc. II 159; Hsch. μ 289.
- 4 Gal. XI, p. 881.
- 5 Translated by Beck 2005: 159.
- 6 Translated by Rackham 1945: 19.
- 7 PME 49, 56.
- 8 See Frisk 1960–1972: vol. II, 508; Chantraine 1999: 883; Brust 2008: 527–537; Beekes 2010: 1173f.
- 9 Monier-Williams 1899: 628; Davids 1921–1925: 460; Turner 1962–1966: 464; Mayrhofer 1956–1980: vol. II, 285f.; 1992–2001: vol. II, 133.
- 10 Iranian: Steingass 1892: 254; Gharib 1995: 271; Armenian: Bedrossian 1875–1879: 615; Semitic: Jastrow 1903: 1184; Drower-Macuch 1963: 371; Wehr 1979: 851; Sokoloff 1990: 431; 2002: 901, 905f.; 2009: 1203; CAL: s.v. plpl, plplh, prplh.
- 11 Epiph. De mens. (ed. F. Hultsch) 83.18 equates it with 20 Alexandrian xestai (≈ 11 litres), while Polyaen. IV 3.32 informs that it contains 10 choes (≈ 33 litres).
- 12 It first appears in an inscription found in Persepolis (IK Estremo oriente 230).
- 13 For these forms, see Hoftijzer-Jongeling 1995: 693; Hinz-Koch 1987: 886; Gignoux 1972: 58; Bedrossian 1875–1879: 456. On the etymology, see Schmitt 1989; Brust 2008: 447–451; Beekes 2010: 906; Rosół 2013: 141f.; cf. Frisk 1960–1972: vol. II, 175; Chantraine 1999: 667.
- 14 Note that this work was an epitome of a comprehensive lexicon consisting of 95 books by Pamphilus of Alexandria (1st cent. CE).
- 15 See: Steingass 1892: 1211.
- 16 See: Öztopçu et al. 1996: 109, 230, 349.
- 17 See: Headley et al. 1977: 772.
- 18 According to an unconvincing view, the Indo-Aryan words go back to Austroasiatic; see Mayrhofer 1956–1980: vol. II, 588; vol. III, 775; 1992–2001: vol. II, 321 (with further references).
- 19 See: Frisk 1960–1972; Chantraine 1999; Beekes 2010. It is likely that the word has not been included in these dictionaries, as it does not appear in the basic version of Liddell-Scott-Jones (1996); μάρις was added in the Supplement (p. 203).