[1453] Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 13.—Aristot. Auscult. Mirab. p. 123.
[1454] De Homonymis Hyles Iatricæ. Trajecti ad Rhenum, 1689, fol. p. 217.
[1455] Lazul or lazur is not of Arabic, but Persian extraction. Ladschuardi or lazuardi in Persian signifies a blue colour and lapis lazuli. It ought properly to be pronounced lazuverd; but the Arabs in their pronunciation contract the v very much, so that it sounds like u; and one can say therefore lazurd. The derivative lazurdi or lazuverdi signifies blue.
The pronunciation lazul, with an l at the end, is agreeable to the common custom among the Arabs of confounding l and r; as instead of zingiber they say zengebil. The initial l is not the article, but seems to belong to the word itself, because it is not originally Arabic. It is worthy of remark, that the Spaniards call blue azul, which is plainly derived from the above word; and the l has been omitted because it was considered as the article, and thus the word was mutilated, as is often the case with foreign words among the Arabs, who say, for example, Escandria, instead of al Escandria (Alexandria).
[1456] Leontius de Constructione Arateæ Sphæræ, in Astronomica Veterum Scripta, 1589, 8vo, p. 144.
[1457] Biblioth. Græca, ii. p. 456.
[1458] Antiquitat. Ital. Medii Ævi, ii. p. 372, 378.
[1459] Introductio in Astrolog.
[1460] De Morb. Curat. cap. 143.
[1461] Chap. xxi. ver. 19.