IS "PlantofForgetfulness"Onomastics

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27

"PlantofForgetfulness"Onomastics

MichaelCarr EastAsianlanguageshave"plant/herbofforgetfulness"namesfor daylilies,forinstance,ChinesewaLngyo‑ucaYo

忘憂草

"forgetsorrow plant"

andJapanesewasure‑gus

a 忘れ草

"forgetplant."Thepresentarticle investigatesdevelopmentsof"forgetfulplants"andstudieshow plant namesevolve.I ThefirstsectionintroducesHemerocallisdayliliesand theirnamesinsomeWesternlanguages. Thesecondandthirdlinguis‑ ticallyanalyzedozensofChineseandJapanesèdaylily'appellationsand outlinetheirtextualhistory. Theconclusion discussesinterrelations betweenpharmacologyandfloralmetaphor,andspeculatesastowhy Chineseherbalmedicine"disremembered"the"plantofforgetfulness"

tradition.

HEMEROCALLIS

Hemerocallis,ordaylily,isagenus(familyLiliaceae,orderLiliales) OfflowersnativetoAsiaandEurope. Theyhavefibrousroots,basal

1.ThanksgotoJim Brennan,PaulBue

l

l,Sam °han,Tim Fehr,Matthew Hanley,KaminishiToshio,PeiZheng,Shimomuralsao,andGrahamTown‑

sendforcontributingtoearlierversionsofthispape

r

.Theauthor'sinterest in"plantsofforgetfulness"grewfromastudy(Carr1993)oftheChinesetiaJo

鱗

̀aminnow

,

2bccopla

妙 u

s'thatwheneaten,likethedayli

l

y,issupposedto makeyouforgetsorrow.

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linearleaves,capsulatefruits,andsmallclustersoffunnel‑Shapedflowers thatarecontinuallyproducedduringspringandsummer. Thecolorful blossomsareyellow,orange,orredinwildvarieties;andpink,mahogany, orpurpleincommercialhybrids.

TheHemerocallisgenusincludesmorethanthirtyspeciesworld‑

wide.InEastAsia,themostcommonare.･tawnyorangeH.fuluaL.(orH.

distichaDoun.),smaller‑blossomedH.minorMill. (H.gramineaAndr.) andH.dumortieriiMor.,brightyellow H.jlauaL"reddishyellow H.

longitubaMiq.,lightorangeH.middendoml‑iTrautv.etMey.,seashore‑ growingH.littweaMa

k

.,night‑bloomingH̲thunbeygiiBak.andlemon yellow H.CitrinaBar.,ManchurianH.auylantiacaBak.,andautumn‑

bloomingH.semperviylenSAra.

A daylilyblossom lastsaboutoneday(ornightforC31/JllH.

thunbeygiiandJ19H.j7ava∀ar.yezoensis),andthisliliaceousephemer‑ alityaffected̀daylily'namesinmanyWesternlanguages.Thebotanical Hemey10Callisdesignationcomesfrom Greek WePOXα九

九L E <

qJLePα

̀day'十 xαu o

E

̀beauty,'whichwastheetymologicalsourceforthese Romancelanguagenames:Latinhemerocalles,Î^tâlⁱâ^nemerocallide,Fren‑

chhe'me'rocal

l

e,Portuguesehemerocallia,andSpanishhemerocala.Other languagesnamedHemerocalliswithnativèlily'and̀day'terms(e.g., GermanTaglilie,Dutchdaglelie,andEnglishdaylily2),orcoinagessuchas Russian lileynikJIHJtefiHl1

f (

"littlelily,"Mongolian ik shar tsetseg"big

2.Daylilylooselyreferstoplantain liliesoftheHosta〜 Funkiagenus,and dayj70uJernamesseveralshort‑lived plantsincluding ̀rockrose,Cistus lada

m

ferus'and 'spiderworts,Commelinaspp.'Compare two Oriental Hdayflower(ing)"plantnames:Chinesen)

' t日及

"day'sreach"̀roseofsharon

,

Hibiscussyriac

us

'andJapanese nichi‑nichika

日日花

"day day flower"

'Madagascarperiwinkle,Vincarosea.'

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"PlantofForgetfulness"Onomastics ²⁹ yellow flower,"orKazakhsharana(<?"yellow")andaltangul"golden flower."

TheOriental"plantofforgetfulness"hasanOccidentalparallelin theforget‑me‑not(<OldFrenchnem'Oubliezmye)nameforMyosotis

,

especiallyM.i)alustrisandM.sco7Piodes,flowerswithasupposedvirtue thatthosewhowearthem willneverbeforgottenbytheirlovers. This poeticsymbolofconstancyoriginatedwith15thcenturyGermanwriters whocalled ̀germanderspeedwe

l l

,Veronica chamaedYyS'the "Veygisz mein nicht,"allegedlythelastwordsofaknightwhodrownedafter fallingfrom ariverbankwhiletryingtopicksomeforhislady, The ChinesewuLuJaLngcaYo

勿忘草

andJapanesewasuylena‑guSa

勿忘草

namesare

"don'tforgetplant"CalquesmodeleduponEnglishforget‑me‑not.3

Recentcross‑linguistic studiesofuniversalsin folk biological classifications(e.g.,Berlin,Breedlove,andRaven1973;Brown1977;Hunn 1982;Atran1990)provideatheoreticalframeworkfor=plantofforgetful‑ ness"names. Folktaxonomiesconsistentlyhavefivehierarchicallevels called ̀̀unique beginner,life form,gener

i c

,specific,and varieta

l . "

Japaneseexamplesofthesefiveare:Shokubutsu

*%

'plant,'kii〜 1g

̀tree,'sakura

桜

̀Japanesecherry(tree),PninuSSpp.,'mine‑zakur

a峰桜

"peakcherry"̀Prunusnil)ponica,'andchishima‑zakuy

l

a

千島桜

"Thousand Island[theKuriles]Cherrytree"̀P.mi)Ponicavar.kurilensis.'Lexemes

3.Baseduponthis

勿忘草

transcriptionwiththeclassicalChineseu)uL>

Japanesemochi

勿

̀no,not'(e.g.,mochiron

勿論

"nodiscussion"̀ofcourse

,

naturally')insteadofusualJapanese‑nanegative(e.g.,wasurena

忘れな

̀not forge

t ' ) ,勿忘草

wouldseem tohavebeencoinedinChina;buttheearliest recordedusage(Kytitoku1966:1)istheJapanese1898Wasuylena‑guSaわすれ

なぐさ

Foyge:t‑Me‑NotpoetrycollectionofShimadaAiko

島田愛子.

Like wuLwatngca

Y

òforget一me‑not,'manyChineseborrowingsofEnglishscientific terminologycamethroughJapanese(seeMair1992).

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canbedifferentiatedbetween"primary/secondary"or"monomial/com‑

plex"(e.g.,ivyandpoison

i v y) .

WhileHemey10Callisconstitutesabotanical genus,theEnglishdaylily〜 day‑lilynamesoundslikeasecondaryspecific oflily

( c

f

.

tl'gerlily,Easterlily),andexemplifieswhatBrown(1987)calls a"folksubgenus."Languagestypicallydistinguishmembersof"specific"

andHvarietali'taxaonbasesofcolor,size,taste,habitat,season,etc.4

TakethesecommonEnglish'daylily'namesasanillustration:tau)ny oymlge(Orfuluous)daylilyforH.fulva,lemondaylilyforH.jlava,yellou) daylilyforH.citrina,nanlOuJdwa7fdaylilyforH.dumortierii,andgolden summerdaylilyforH.au71antiaca.Havingintroducedtheseonomastic preliminaries,Orientalnamesfordayliliescanbeanalyzed.

CHINESENAMES

Beforediscussing Oriental̀daylily'names,afew transcription conventionsandlinguistictermsneedtobepresented. ThePinyinsys‑ tem isusedtoromanizeModernStandardChineseandtheHepburnfor Modern Japanese. Forthe sake ofbrevity,Chinese and Japanese

̀daylily'namesareabbreviatedwith"C"and

"

∫"prefixesandnumbered from C1‑C39and J1

‑

J22in approximatechronologicaldevelopment.

"Names"aretakentomeanspoken,ratherthanwritten,designations; compare

J

Iwasure‑gusatranscriptionsof

萱草,忘れぐさ,忘草,忘れ草

,and

4.FormostChineseplantnames,Chao(1953:382)explains

,

"Colorwords, tastewords,etc.,whichareoftensaidtobèprefixed'toplantwords,are reallythefirstmembersofcompoundsandnottrueprefixes."

5.SincethepresentarticlefocusesuponhistoricaldevelopmentsofHemerocal‑ lisvocabulary,notallChineseorJapanesenamesareincluded.Twosetsof excluded̀daylily'termsare:namesforspeciesnotnativetoChinaorJapan (e.g.,Japanesecholsen‑kisuge

朝鮮黄菅

"Koreanyellowsedge"H.minor

∀

a

r .

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"PlantofForgetfulness"Onomastics ³¹

わすれ草

intable2.5

Sometechnicalterminologywillbenecessarytodescribehow logographicwritingaffectedOriental̀daylily'names. Totakeanillus‑ trationfrom Japanese

,萱

(properlykeǹdaylily')iscommonlywrittenfor kaya〜 suge

菅

̀sedge'and菅 for̀daylily.' Theterm logog71aPhisused insteadoftheinexact"C

hi

nesecharacter,"whileyladicalsandphonetics refertotherecurring logographiccomponentsthatroughly indicate meaningandpronunciation. MostChinesebotanicalnamesarewritten w

itheitherthe=plantradical"廿 (contracted

< 州

picturingsprouting shoots)orthe"treeradical"

木

(depictingatrunkandroots). Namely, theChinese

萱

logographforxua

‑

ǹdaylily'combinesthe"plantradical"

overthexuaJn

宣

̀announce,proclaim;declare;spread;all‑embracing' phonetic. Commonplacelogographswiththisxua‑nphonetic(intu

r

n,the

"roofradical"^JJIoverthexua‑n

亘

̀revolve;goaround'phonetic)include xua‑n喧̀sunlight;dryinthesun'(withthe

ロ

"sunradical")andxua‑n

置

〜喧 ̀shout,yell;clamor,hubbub'(with

言

"speech"

〜口

"mouthradi‑ cals").

I nJ

apanese,

kanj i

#S "Chinese

l

ogograph

s

"generallyhavetwo (ormore)readings:nativepronunciationsandSiniticborrowings. This

萱

logographreadseitherasvernacularkaya〜 sugèreed'orasSinoI Japaneseban〜 keǹdaylily.'Jiay]lie

'傾借

"phoneticloans"‑ logographs usedtowritewordswithsimilarpronunciations‑ furthercomplicated thelinguistichistoryofChinesèdaylily'names,asexemplifiedbytwo earlyredactionsoftheShijing(seep.40)writingC

Ix

ua‑ncdo

萱草

as

譲

cweana,MatsuokaandHotta1966:40),andunattestednames(e.i"Chinese e'j'iayohu

a J鷲脚花

"gooselegflower"citedin EmuraJokei'

S江村如圭

1731 Shiky0‑meibuねuben

k ai 詩経名物難解 E

QlanationofNamesintheShijing).