# فاغرة
## Arabic
### Alternative forms

* فَاجِرَة (fājira), فَاكِرَة (fākira) — obsolete

### Etymology

On one hand, the distribution of this term and its alternative forms—when compared to that of Persian borrowings such as غَوْشَنَة (ḡawšana) and أُشْتُرْغَار (ʔušturḡār)—suggests that this term is also a Persian borrowing. The variants point to some Persian ***فاگِره (***fāgira); compare Classical Persian فَاخِرَه (fāxira, “Szechuan pepper”), which also appears occasionally as فَاغِرَه (fāğira). The Persian word is ascribed an internal etymology from فَخْر (faxr, “glory”), on account of the vainglory associated with the spice.
Nevertheless, lexicographers, even native Persian ones, often favor an explanation based on an Arabic feminine active participle derived from the verbs فَغَرَ (faḡara, “to open (the mouth) wide”) and فَجَرَ (fajara, “to cleave”). Under this explanation, this term would refer to either the half-open berries revealing their seeds or to the spice’s ethnomedical function of dispersing swellings and opening network vessels (relating to the root of Zanthoxylum avicennae). A similar association is reflected in the Persian plant names کبابه شکافته (kabâbe šekâfte, literally “cleft cubeb”) and دهان باز (dahân bâz, literally “open mouth”). Ultimately, then, the term appears a phono-semantic matching from Middle Chinese 花椒 (MC xwae tsjew)—perhaps with a third word.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /faː.ɣi.ra/

### Noun

فَاغِرَة • (fāḡira) f
* Sichuan pepper (any of the spice plants under the Zanthoxylum genus and their produce)
** 975–997, محمد بن أحمد الخوارزمي [muḥammad ibn ʕaḥmad al-ḵwārizmī], edited by Gerlof van Vloten, مفاتيح العلوم [mafātīḥ al-ʕulūm], Leiden: E. J. Brill, published 1895, page 171, line 10:
** 1025, ابن سينا [Avicenna], القانون في الطب [Canon Medicinae]:فاغرة (var. فاكرة). الماهية: حب يشبه الحمص له حب كالمحلب وفي جوفه حب أسود كالشهدانج يحمل من السفالة. الطبع: حارة يابسة في الثالثة. الخواص: فيها تحليل وقبض. أعضاء الغذاء: يدخل في الأدوية المصلحة للمعدة والكبد الباردتين وينفع من سوء الاستمراء البارد. أعضاء النفض: ينفع من الإسهال البارد ويعقل البطن.Sichuan pepper: Its essence: The fruit resembles chickpeas, it has fruits like mahaleb cherry, and in its inner it is black like hempseed, bearing fruit from below. Its nature: Hot and dry in the third degree. Its peculiarities: In it there is discharging and constipation. Alimentary organs: It is put into drugs by reason of availing the stomach and the liver when they are cold and it is useful against calamities of cold appetite. Excretory organs: It helps against cold diarrhoea and constricts the belly.
** a. 1248, ابن البيطار [Ibn al-Bayṭār], الجامع لمفردات الأدوية والأغذية [De simplicibus medicinis opus magnum]:فاغرة: ابن ماسه: الفاغرة حارة يابسة في الدرجة الثانية تدخل في الأدوية المصلحة للكبد والمعدة. إسحاق بن عمران: الفاغرة هي حبة تشبه حبة الحمصة، وفي داخلها حبة صغيرة مدحرجة سوداء ظاهرها الأعلى أصهب وعصارتها يتمضمض بها من الريح في الفم فتنفعه والفاغرة تتصرف في النضوجات واللخالخ وما أشبههما. غيره: تحلل وتقبض وتعقل البطن.(please add an English translation of this quotation)

#### Descendants

* → Classical Syriac: ܦܥܪܐ (pāʿərā)
* → Translingual: Schinus fagara
** ⇒ Translingual: Fagara
*** → French: fagara, fagare
**** ⇒ French: fagarier
*** → English: fagara
*** → Spanish: fagara

### Further reading

* Austin, Daniel F., Felger, Richard S. (2008) “Sichuan Peppers and the Etymology of Fagara (Rutaceae)”, in Economic Botany‎, volume 62, number 4, →DOI, pages 567–573
* Seidel, Ernst (1915) “Die Medizin im Kitâb Mafâtîḥ al ʿUlûm”, in Sitzungsberichte der Physikalisch-Medizinischen Sozietät zu Erlangen‎ (in German), volume 47, page 42 Anm. 104
* فاغرة on the Arabic Wikipedia.Wikipedia $^{ar}$