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| Notes on Marco Polo : vol.1 |
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Citation Information
112. CAMUT 157
VULLERS, 938-939; Fe, 31; LAUFER, in TP, 1916, 477-478, and Sino-Iranica, 539 (but RI chin-
chia is a misreading for chin-tuan _ chin-tuan, «gold satin », and Chao Ju-kua
writes Tt : hua-chin, not chin-hua); LOKOTSCH, Etym. Wörterbuch, No. 1043, who starts from
Pers. kämhâ, itself explained as borrowed from Ch. «kimsa, kinsa» (__ 1• chin-sha or a $,1J
chin-sha ?) ; I have heard myself kimgâb in Kâsyar and Turfan. In Turkish, we find Alt. Tel. Kir. Kkir qamqa (RADLOV, II, 490; > Russ. kamka, « damask », already in THEVET, 16th cent.; cf. BOYER. in Rec. de mél. orient., 1905, 468), Sag. gamyï. Z`ay. qumga of RADLOV, II, 1049, and BLOCHET, Moufazzal, 119 (cf. also Bl, I, 245) is probably to be read qomqa < qamqa. The true Chinese etymology has not yet been ascertained. The chin-sha quoted by LOKOTSCH on the authority of KARABAaK is a possible combination, but unattested and phonetically unsatisfactory.
One may think of n chin-chin (*kim-kim), on which cf. Br, H, 125, but this would require
that the forms with a labial ending, kimxwâb, kimgâb, etc., are the most ancient, a conclusion which does not seem to be supported by such evidence as we have. It will be noticed that qamqa is not given by Kâsyari in 1076, although he mentions other Chinese textiles. The word may have come to the West by sea, and only after the 11th cent.; but in such a case, the Turkish forms qamqa, etc., would be second-hand borrowings. The whole question must be studied afresh.
On « sagri», cf. YULE, Hobson-Jobson2, 818; LAUFER, in TP, 1916, 478, and Sino-Iranica, 575; BROCKELMANN, Kasyari, 169; HOUTSMA, Turk.-Arab. Glossar, 81; POPPE, in Izv. Ak. Nauk, 1928, 57; LOKOTSCH, Etym. Wörterbuch, No. 1760.
For « camutum », KUUN (p. 374) has quoted Du CANGE'S «camuzzum ». But the word « camutum » occurs in the same form in a document written at Caffa in 1289 (in zapis cent um duodecim camuti; BRATIANU, Actes des notaires génois, p. 185). YULE ( Y, I, 395) has connected «camut» with both Pers. 1..1( kâmû and c.-L-f kimuht or käimuht; and keima would seem to give some authority to the « camu» of F. But kàma is a doubtful word of lexicographers, and its would-be Turkish form kämi (VULLERS, 783) is otherwise unknown. On the contrary, kimuht, «leather made from the croup of a horse or an ass », is common in Persian, and I think it gives the real etymology of camutum. Kimuht seems to be a true Persian word, and, contrary to the general opinion but in agreement with LOKOTSCH, I believe that sayrt (= sayri) was originally Turkish, and simply borrowed in Persian.
Joinville speaks of St Louis's garments in the following terms (DE WAILLY'S ed. 1874, p. 667) : «Ses robes estoient de camelin ou de pers; ses pennes de ses couvertours et de ses robes estoient de gamites, ou de jambes de lievres, ou d'aigniaux. » The word « gamite » has been explained as meaning « chamois » (cf. GODEFROY, S. V. « gamite »), but this is not satisfactory from a phonetic point of view and is not even discussed in VON WARTBURG'S Franz. Etym. Wörterbuch among the forms derived from camox. I feel much more inclined to see in «gamite» another spelling of « camut ». More puzzling is the following quotation from FAUCHET'S Antiquitez, V, 11, which I find in HUGUET'S Dict. de la langue française du seizième siècle, II, 66 : «Ils [les Sarrasins] vont ... couverts de sayons de couleurs, qu'encor' aujourdhuy ils nomment Camits. » If it be the same word, which would thus have still been known in the second half of the 16th cent., we ought to be able to find more traces of it.
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