فاغرة

See also: فاغره

Arabic

Alternative forms

فَاجِرَة (fājira), فَاكِرَة (fākira) — obsolete

Etymology

On one hand, the distribution of this term and its alternative forms—when compared to that of Persian borrowings such as غَوْشَنَة (ḡawšana) and أُشْتُرْغَار (ʔušturḡār)—suggests that this term is also a Persian borrowing. The variants point to some Persian (***fāgira); compare Classical Persian (fāxira, “Szechuan pepper”), which also appears occasionally as (fāğira). The Persian word is ascribed an internal etymology from (faxr, “glory”), on account of the vainglory associated with the spice.

Nevertheless, lexicographers, even native Persian ones, often favor an explanation based on an Arabic feminine active participle derived from the verbs فَغَرَ (faḡara, “to open (the mouth) wide”) and فَجَرَ (fajara, “to cleave”). Under this explanation, this term would refer to either the half-open berries revealing their seeds or to the spice’s ethnomedical function of dispersing swellings and opening network vessels (relating to the root of Zanthoxylum avicennae). A similar association is reflected in the Persian plant names (kabâbe šekâfte, literally “cleft cubeb”) and (dahân bâz, literally “open mouth”). Ultimately, then, the term appears a phono-semantic matching from Middle Chinese 花椒 (MC xwae tsjew)—perhaps with a third word.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /faː.ɣi.ra/

Noun

فَاغِرَة • (fāḡira) f

Sichuan pepper (any of the spice plants under the Zanthoxylum genus and their produce)
- 975–997, محمد بن أحمد الخوارزمي [muḥammad ibn ʕaḥmad al-ḵwārizmī], edited by Gerlof van Vloten, مفاتيح العلوم [mafātīḥ al-ʕulūm], Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1895, page 171, line 10:
- 1025, ابن سينا [Avicenna], القانون في الطب [Canon Medicinae]:
  فاغرة (var. فاكرة).
  الماهية: حب يشبه الحمص له حب كالمحلب وفي جوفه حب أسود كالشهدانج يحمل من السفالة.
  الطبع: حارة يابسة في الثالثة.
  الخواص: فيها تحليل وقبض.
  أعضاء الغذاء: يدخل في الأدوية المصلحة للمعدة والكبد الباردتين وينفع من سوء الاستمراء البارد.
  أعضاء النفض: ينفع من الإسهال البارد ويعقل البطن.
  Sichuan pepper:
  Its essence: The fruit resembles chickpeas, it has fruits like mahaleb cherry, and in its inner it is black like hempseed, bearing fruit from below.
  Its nature: Hot and dry in the third degree.
  Its peculiarities: In it there is discharging and constipation.
  Alimentary organs: It is put into drugs by reason of availing the stomach and the liver when they are cold and it is useful against calamities of cold appetite.
  Excretory organs: It helps against cold diarrhoea and constricts the belly.
- a. 1248, ابن البيطار [Ibn al-Bayṭār], الجامع لمفردات الأدوية والأغذية [De simplicibus medicinis opus magnum]:
  فاغرة: ابن ماسه: الفاغرة حارة يابسة في الدرجة الثانية تدخل في الأدوية المصلحة للكبد والمعدة. إسحاق بن عمران: الفاغرة هي حبة تشبه حبة الحمصة، وفي داخلها حبة صغيرة مدحرجة سوداء ظاهرها الأعلى أصهب وعصارتها يتمضمض بها من الريح في الفم فتنفعه والفاغرة تتصرف في النضوجات واللخالخ وما أشبههما. غيره: تحلل وتقبض وتعقل البطن.
  (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Declension

Declension of noun فَاغِرَة (fāḡira)

Singular	singular triptote in ـَة (-a)
Singular	Indefinite	Definite	Construct
Informal	فَاغِرَة fāḡira	الْفَاغِرَة al-fāḡira	فَاغِرَة fāḡirat
Nominative	فَاغِرَةٌ fāḡiratun	الْفَاغِرَةُ al-fāḡiratu	فَاغِرَةُ fāḡiratu
Accusative	فَاغِرَةً fāḡiratan	الْفَاغِرَةَ al-fāḡirata	فَاغِرَةَ fāḡirata
Genitive	فَاغِرَةٍ fāḡiratin	الْفَاغِرَةِ al-fāḡirati	فَاغِرَةِ fāḡirati

Descendants

→ Classical Syriac: ܦܥܪܐ (pāʿərā)
→ Translingual: Schinus fagara
- ⇒ Translingual: Fagara
  - → French: fagara, fagare
    - ⇒ French: fagarier
  - → English: fagara
  - → Spanish: fagara