Microlessico medico armeno

Armenian medicine is the result of the interaction between the several cultures and sciences with which the Armenians were in contact. In this, it reflects Armenian cultural history, whereby foreign elements were quickly absorbed and assimilated. The Arme- nian medical lexicon represents a convenient example of such a state of affairs. A medical micro-language began to form in Armenia even before the country was populated by Armenians. Urartean myths related to health and hygiene, stemming from the VIII-XI centuries BC were re-elaborated and incorporated by the oldest layer of Armenian tradition; in some cases, such as that of Ara the Handsome, similar tales even found their way in Greek culture, as is shown by the well-known platonic myth of Er, son of Armenios. From Greece, in later times, the Armenians inherited much of their medical science: after the invention of the Armenian alphabet in the V century AD, many works were composed or translated into Armenian. For those which were not translated, as is apparently the case of Galen’s works, special dictionaries were created, of which the Bark‛ Gałianosi (literaly: “words of Galen”) represents the most famous and curious example. By the XI century, Armenian medicine was able to draw from Byzantine and Arab medical sci- ence, in addition to local knowledge. At that time, authors such as Grigor Magistros, imbued with medical science, could describe properties of plants and illnesses with great lexical detail. In the later middle ages, some Armenian medics even contributed to the international development of medical science, as was the case Mxit‛ar Herac‛i about the study of fever and about the anatomy of the eye. Mxit‛ar’s effort also left remarkable traces in Armenian medical lexicon. With the political decadence of Armenia, on the eve of the European Renaissance, medical art (and language) was not forgotten. An excellent medic like Amir- dovlat Amasiac‛i, personal doctor of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet II, greatly contributed to the science of his time, writing several treatises among which the most curious is probably the one entitled angitac’ anpet, that is, literally, “useless for ignorants”. Armenian medical practice continued to live and occasion- ally flourish in Ottoman times, down until the XIX and XX centuries, when modern medicine was born: not surprisingly, this science could find in the Armenian language a rich inventory of specialized words, many of which are still in use today.