More H Words--really focusing on Gamboge/Hebradendron

1. Of all the "h"-words my eye fell across in the past few days, the most interesting is Hebradendron. The word is attested in the Century, but not in more recent dictionaries, to describe a genus of tree, especially those native to Sri Lanka (the former Ceylon). The current name of the family of these trees is the Guttiferae, while most of the trees are in the genus Garcinia. Known in English as the gamboge tree (gamboge is an internationally recognized yellowish color, the color of the fruits), the species we are concerned with is called the Garcinina Cambogia (Cambogia is the Latin name for "Cambodia," the general word for the land of the ancient origin of these trees.

The fascinating thing about the word Hebradendron, however, is that it derives its name (literally "Hebrew tree") from the notion that the flowers or petals of the tree, when opened, look like a circumcised penis--at least to the guy who came up with the word (who was that?). This might seem to be a stretch, but let's look a little more closely at the word. The Century tells us that "the name alludes to the peculiar form, suggesting circumcision, of the anther at dehiscence" (i.e., when the flower of the tree actually blooms). Well, this is an interesting concept, isn't it? The Century goes on to say that it is a genus of trees now regarded as forming a section of the genus Garcinia (see above) which yield the valuable resins known as gamboge. So one study, two words.

But I don't want to get cut off from this "circumcision" idea. In this article from the 1911 Britannica, we learn that

"in some Guttiferae, as Hebradendron cambogioides [the same as cambogia] (the Ceylon gamboge plant), the anther opens by a lid separating from the apex (circumscissile dehiscence)."

Ah, now we are getting someplace. So, let's follow up and figure out what circumscissile means. According to the Century, it means "to cut around," and denotes "opening or divided by a transverse circular line: applied to a mode of dehiscence in some plants..." There is a picture in the Century to show what a "transverse" circular cut it. It basically is a slice around the middle of the fruit, like you are cutting a grapefruit. Here is a picture of such an opening. Then, the definition goes on to say that "the fruit in such cases [is] called a pyxidium." We are so rewarded by some work, aren't we? Well, we could go into some detail about a pyx (a box for holding the Consecrated Host, for example), pyxis, originally a type of cylindrical vase or box with a cover (our meaning here); a pyxidium is everything from a writing-table to a "seed-vessel, commonly a capsule, with a circumscissile dehiscence, the top falling away like a lid..." Bingo.

So, the genus originally was called the Hebradendron, because its fruit had a transverse cut, reminding someone of a circumcised penis. This kind of fruit was said to have a circumscissile dehiscence and is found especially in the gamboge fruit/tree, of the (current) genus Garcinia. My big question is how did the original namer get away with naming something according to what it looked like to him--especially when that thing was a circumcised penis? Might it have been a mohel who named it? (a guy who does circumcisions). After all, many early botanists were ministers; would it be too much of a stretch to see some of the early botanists also as mohels? Actually, I think that is stretching things a little beyond the evidence. But this is about the most fascinating little word journey in a long time..

Conclusion

2. and 3. When I was thinking about mohels and their work, my eye fell upon the word mohar, which is also a word with a meaning in a Jewish context, and mahr, which is its Arabic equivalent. A mohar is "the marriage payment [among the people of ancient Israel] made by a bridegroom either to his bride or the bride's father." The word was first attested in English in Smith's 1863 Dictionary of the Bible, a Christian production. But the Encyclopedia Judaica, a century later, used the term, too: "Jews in Muslim countries never accepted the custom of nedunyah, but continued the practice of mohar. The money which the groom gave to the bride's father, however, was used to buy furniture and household goods for the newly married couple." Did this mean that the husband gave money to the bride's parents so that they (the bride's parents) could buy goods for the married couple? Doesn't that seem a bit roundabout? By the way, nedunyah is the Hebrew word for "dowry," the assets that the wife brought to the marriage and entrusted to her husband. So it was a "bridegroom-paying" culture, rather than a "bride-paying" culture.

Then, mahr is a term in Islamic law to describe "the gift which the bridegroom must make to the bride when the marriage contract is made and which becomes her property." Just like the mohar. And that is enough for this essay.

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