Re: Bubo and Plague

"Peter Alaca" <P.Alaca@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:4401edd7$0$65810$dbd4b001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Alan Crozier wrote: news:f3kMf.46279$d5.202542@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Simon Pugh" <News@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:d7kx7nEuBcAEFwL1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I was wondering about the origin of the word bubo in
connection with
plague as in Latin it means owl.

A look in the dictionary suggests the word comes from the
Greek
boubon - groin or swelling.

Bubo or bubum seems to have been a medieval Latin term for
a swelling
and bubonocele for inguinal hernia although I couldn't find
this use
in classical Latin.

No, it's a late Latin borrowing from Greek.

This word meaning groin or bulge goes back to an
Indo-European
root meaning "to swell".

The cry of the bubo (horned owl) was said to be an ill omen
by the
Romans and in Christian symbolism an owl can also have
negative
connotations and I wondered if this could have made the
term seem
appropriate for a sign of the plague.

The word meaning owl goes back to a different IE root
imitating
the call of the owl (hence words for the bird in Persian
bum,
Armenian bu, Greek byas, byza, Bulgarian buh). The same root
gives words for the bittern (Lithuanian baublys, Latin
butio,
Polish bak).

Scientific name: Botaurus

So, there is no original connection between the words for
groin
and owl. It is perfectly possible that learned people in the
Middle Ages nevertheless imagined a connection, as you
suggest.

However when I had a quick look through sources on the
Black Death
I found the swellings called just about every imaginable
thing except
bubo.

English seems to have plenty of words for boils and
swellings
and various kinds.

I wonder if anyone knows when the term first came into use
in
connection with plague, I am beginning to wonder if it was
Victorian

The earliest use of bubo in the OED is quite old, in fact.
It's
from 1398, from Trevisa:

Somtyme a postume comyth of ventosite and of wynde and hight
Bubo.
Meaning:
Sometimes an apostem (deep abscess) comes from ventosity
(flatulence) and from wind and is called Bubo.

The next example is from 1597, Gerard's Herbal:
Which imposthume is called Bubo by reason of his lurking
in such secret places.

That is very characteristic of the Bittern.
Very secretive and almost invisible in
the reeds

:-)

I wouldn't like to have a bittern hiding in my groin.

(explaning why the same word means groin and swelling)

Alan

--
Alan Crozier
Lund
Sweden


.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Bubo and Plague
    ... Bubo or bubum seems to have been a medieval Latin term ... This word meaning groin or bulge goes back to an ... The word meaning owl goes back to a different IE root ... Sometimes an apostem comes from ventosity ...
    (soc.history.medieval)
  • Re: Bubo and Plague
    ... Bubo or bubum seems to have been a medieval Latin term ... The word meaning owl goes back to a different IE root ... in such secret places. ... As we neared Lund it made one last struggle to ...
    (soc.history.medieval)