chestnuts

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chestnuts,

Original French:  Caſtanes,

Modern French:  Castanes,



Notes

Balanus

Balanus

Meydenbach, Jacob, Ortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Germany: 1491. 32v. University of Cambridge Digital Library

Balanus (text)

Balanus (text)

Meydenbach, Jacob, Ortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Germany: 1491. 32v. University of Cambridge Digital Library

Castanea

Castanea

Meydenbach, Jacob, Ortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Germany: 1491. 49r. University of Cambridge Digital Library

Castanea (text)

Castanea (text)

Meydenbach, Jacob, Ortus Sanitatis. Mainz, Germany: 1491. 49r. University of Cambridge Digital Library

castanea

Castanea sativa
Castanea
Kesten

Fuchs, Leonhart (1501 – 1566), De historia stirpium commentarii insignes…. Basil: In Officina Isingriniana, 1542. p. 377. Smithsonian Library

castanes

Urquhart has “Gastanes;” Ozell notes “Read Castanes. From Castana, a city of Thessaly, which abounds with Chesnut-trees, or as Cooper writes it, Chesten-tree or Nut.”

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), The Works of Francis Rabelais, M.D. The Third Book. Now carefully revised, and compared throughout with the late new edition of M. Le du Chat. John Ozell (d. 1743), editor. London: J. Brindley, 1737.

Chestnuts

From the old Magnesian or Thessalian city Castanaea (Pomp. Mela, ii 3, 35). According to Pliny (xv. 23, § 25), they came originally from Sardis.

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), The Five Books and Minor Writings. Volume 1: Books I-III. William Francis Smith (1842–1919), translator. London: Alexader P. Watt, 1893. Internet Archive

Castanea

Tum Macedonum populi aliquot urbes habitant, quarum Pelle est et maxima et inlustris. …a Peneo ad Sepiada Corynthya, Meliboea, Castanaea pares ad famam nisi quod Philoctetes alumnus Meliboean inluminat.

(Then the Macedonian peoples inhabit a number of cities, of which Pelle is expecially renowned. … From the Peneus to Point Sepias are Eurtymenae, Meliboea, and Castanea, all equally famous except that Philoctetes, its native son, ennobles Meliboea. — F.E. Romer translation)

Mela, Pomponius (d. AD 45), Geography/De Situ Orbis. 2.3.35. Google Books

castanes

Nuces vocamus et castaneas, quamquam accommodatiores glandium generi. armatum his echinato calyce vallum, quod inchoatum glandibus, mirumque vilissima esse quae tanta occultaverit cura naturae. trini quibusdam partus ex uno calyce; cortexque lentus, proxima vero corpori membrana et in his et in nucibus saporem, ni detrahatur, infestat. torrere has in cibis gratius, modo molantur, et praestant ieiunio feminarum quandam imaginem panis. Sardibus hae provenere primum: ideo apud Graecos Sardianos balanos appellant, nam Dios balanu nomen postea inposuere excellentioribus satu factis.

We give the name of nut to the chestnut also, although it seems to fit better into the acorn class. The chestnut has its armed rampart in its bristling shell, which in the acorn is only partly developed, and it is surprising that what nature has taken such pains to conceal should be the least valuable of things. Some chestnuts produce three nuts from one shell; and the skin is tough, but next to the body of the nut there is a membrane which both in the chestnut and the walnut spoils the taste if it is not peeled off. It is more agreeable as a food when roasted, provided it is ground up, and it supplies a sort of imitation bread for women when they are keeping a fast. They came first from Sardis, and consequently they are called nuts of Sardis among the Greeks, for the name of Zeus’s nut was given them later, after they had been improved by cultivation.

Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD), The Natural History. Volume 4: Books 12–16. Harris Rackham (1868–1944), translator. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1945. 15.25. Loeb Classical Library

castanes

Castana vulgaris, Lam. Châtaignier. Amentacée probablement indigène en Europe, mais que Pomponius Mela (II, 3, 35) dit originaire de Castanea, ville de Magnésie. [Note: Mela does not appear to attribute the origin of castanes to Castanea, he merely mentions that there is a town in Magnesia of that name.] Pline dit, au contraire (XV, 25) : « Sardibus eæ provenere primum ». (Paul Delaunay)

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Oeuvres. Édition critique. Tome Cinquieme: Tiers Livre. Abel Lefranc (1863-1952), editor. Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1931. p. 349. Internet Archive

castanea

castanea, or chestnut, from Castanea, a city of Magnesia, in northeastern Greece…

Rabelais, François (ca. 1483–1553), Complete works of Rabelais. Jacques LeClercq (1891–1971), translator. New York: Modern Library, 1936.

castanes

castane. Also casteyn(e, kasteyne, castany, astainy. [adopted from Old Norman French castanie, castaine (modern French châtaigne): Latin castanea chestnut.]

A chestnut (obsolete)

1398 John de Trevisa Bartholomeus De proprietatibus rerus. xvii. lxxxviii. (Tollemache MS.) Kasteynes [1535 Casteyns] bredeþ swellynge yf men eteþ to many þerof.

(1495) 656 The casteyne tree is a grete tree and an highe… Suche trees ben callyd Castanie.

1398 John de Trevisa Bartholomeus De proprietatibus rerus cxxii. 684 The colour of a castane.

C. 1440 Promptorium parvulorium sive cleriucorum 73, Castany [1499 chesteyne], frute or tre.

1480 William Caxton Ovid’s Metamorphoses xiii. xv, Thou shalt have also castaynes grete plente.

1567 Maplet Greek Forest 48 The Kastainy is a tree of good high growth;


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Posted 22 January 2013. Modified 30 August 2020.

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