Andalusi reflections of latin sillybus

Abstract

The Latin plant name sillybus, „a kind of thistle‟, had been proposed as the etymon of the Spanish jilguero (goldfinch), but this idea was rejected by Menéndez Pidal and Corominas, who went so far as to question the very existence of the phytonym in the Latin of Hispania, given the absence of written testimony. In the present article, Arabic has been used as an alternative method of confirmation, since there was no evidence in Latin, and medieval Arabic botanical repertoires were searched. The term is found, but the presence of graphical alterations and errors indicates that it is a bookish term and not common lan- guage. However, the evidence of Andalusi place names derived from *sillybarium, 'land of thistles', corroborates the initial proposal and also helps to explain place names such as Chirivella (Valencia) or Chirivel (Almería), which had received erroneous interpretations. This etymon did become part of colloquial speech and it sheds new light on some rude invective words of uncertain etymology, such as a whole family of expressions to which the much-discussed gilipollas (asshole/idiot) belongs.