sandalum

Forms

sandalum n (genitive sandalī); second declension^[1] Also spelled santalum and sandalis.^[1] British sources also have sandalus and sandrium.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Byzantine Greek σάνδανον (sándanon) or σάνταλον (sántalon), from Arabic صَنْدَل (ṣandal), from Middle Persian čandal (“sandalwood”), from Sanskrit चन्दन (candana, “sandalwood”).^[1] The DMLBS likewise derives it from Greek σάνδαλον (sándalon) and σάνδανον (sándanon), going back to the Sanskrit word.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first record in British medieval Latin to before 1250, as the name of sandalwood.^[3]

Semantic evolution

It names the wood of trees of the genus Santalum.^[2] Medieval writers distinguished white, red and yellow (citrinum) sandalwood, and the wood was powdered for drugs and ointments.^[2] A medical glossary notes that apothecaries meant the red kind when they wrote the word alone.^[2] The word passed into Middle English as sandal and, through Old French sandre, as saundres.^[1]

Timeline

• before 1250 – British medieval Latin records it for sandalwood.^[3]
• 1323 – An English issue roll lists a pound of powdered red sandalwood.^[2]
• 1377 – The Scottish Exchequer Rolls record the purchase of sandalwood (sandrium).^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) sandalwood, the wood of the Santalum tree; also red sandalwood.^[2][1][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) Powdered sandalwood used in medicine.^[2]

Usage notes

Several other medieval words share the spelling.^[4][2] Niermeyer and Köbler record sandalum (also sandalium) for a small boat, from Greek, first in a letter of Pope Hadrian I (772–795).^[4][3] The DMLBS has a separate sandalum for a silken fabric like taffeta, from Arabic, a form of cendalum,^[2] and Du Cange quotes it from an inventory of the church of Noyon of 1419 (de Sandalo rubeo).^[5] The DMLBS also gives it as a spelling of sandalium “sandal”,^[2] and Köbler lists a sandalum “horse cloth” from the Catholicon Anglicum (1483).^[3]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
5. ^ du Cange, Charles du Fresne, et al. (1883–1887), Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, augmented ed. by Léopold Favre, Niort: L. Favre