| Title: | Abadir or Abaddir |
| Original Title: | Abadir ou Abaddir |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 1 (1751), p. 7 |
| Author: | Edme-François Mallet (biography) |
| Translator: | Mark K. Jensen [Pacific Lutheran University] |
| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.473 |
| Citation (MLA): | Mallet, Edme-François. "Abadir or Abaddir." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.473>. Trans. of "Abadir ou Abaddir," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 1. Paris, 1751. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Mallet, Edme-François. "Abadir or Abaddir." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Mark K. Jensen. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.473 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Abadir ou Abaddir," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 1:7 (Paris, 1751). |
Abadir or Abaddir, word composed of two Phoenician terms. It means magnificent father, a title the Carthaginians gave to gods of the first order. In mythology, abadir is the name of a stone that Cybele or Ops, the wife of Saturn, had her husband swallow in the place of the child to whom she had just given birth. The word is found in corrupted form in Isidore’s glosses, [1] where we read Agadir lapis. Barthius, [2] taking it as it is found in Isidore, ridiculously associates it with the German language. Bochart [3] searched for the origin of abadir in the Phoenician language, and believes with some verisimilitude that it signifies a round stone ; this squares with the shape described by Damascius. [4] The Ancients believed that this stone was the god Terminus [5]: others claim that the word was formerly a synonym for God.
1. Saint Isidore of Seville, c. 560-636 CE, whom the French historian Montalembert (1810-1870) called the last scholar of the ancient world. He was the first Christian writer to attempt to summarize universal knowledge, in his Etymologiae, which is also known as Origines. Written in Latin, this was the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. Its popularity continued during the Renaissance, ten editions being published between 1470 and 1530. At present, in the early 21st century, an effort is afoot to make Isidore the patron saint of the Internet.
2. The Latin name of Kaspar von Barth or, as his name is styled in French, Gaspard de Barth, 1587-1658, a German scholar.
3. Samuel Bochart, 1599-1667, a French Protestant biblical scholar, author of a two-volume Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan: cui accedunt variae dissertationes philologicae, geographicae, theologicae, etc. (Caen, 1646). Bochart was one of the most learned linguists of his day, and devised many fanciful etymologies.
4. Damascius was a Greek philosopher, 458-538 CE, often called the last of the Neoplatonists. He was the last person to head the School of Athens. Persecuted by Justinian, who closed the school in 529, Damascius sought refuge for a time in the Persian court.
5. The Roman deity who protected boundary markers.