[808] From the Greek σύαγρος, “a wild boar,” as Pliny afterwards states; they being so called from their peculiar wild taste.
[809] See B. vi. c. 39.
[810] Said to have been so called from the Greek κάρη, “the head,” and ὑωδία, “stupidity,” owing to the heady nature of the wine extracted from the fruit.
[811] See B. vi. c. 32, and B. xiv. c. [19].
[812] The Jericho of Scripture.
[813] Athenæus, B. xiv. c. 22, tells us that these dates were thus called from Nicolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, who, when visiting Rome with Herod the Great, made Augustus a present of the finest fruit of the palm-tree that could be procured. This fruit retained its name of “Nicolaän,” down to the middle ages.
[814] Pliny would imply that they are so called from the Greek ἀδέλφια, “a sister,” as being of sister quality to the caryotæ; but it is much more probable, as Fée remarks, that they got this name from being attached in pairs to the same pedicle or stalk.
[815] Pliny certainly seems to imply that they are so called from the Greek πατέω, “to tread under foot,” and Hardouin is of that opinion. Fée, however, thinks the name is from the Hebrew or Syriac “patach,” “to expand,” or “open,” or else from the Hebrew “pathah,” the name of the first vowel, from some fancied resemblance in the form.
[816] From the Greek χυδαῖος, “vulgar,” or “common,” it is supposed. The Jews probably called them so, as being common, or offered by the Gentiles to their idols and divinities. Pliny evidently considers that in the name given to them no compliment was intended to the deities of the heathen mythology.
[817] From its extreme driness, and its shrivelled appearance.