"o8TY"
Could someone please post the ancient Greek word for the silver birch,
or provide a suitable reference. I have checked Theophrastus but there is no
listing for the tree. This
is most odd because he grew up in the region where the silver birch grew.

Mike Lyle schreef
If only life were so simple! The Cyprus dictionary doesn't claim to
know a classical word for the tree; though *semyda* looks probable,
Liddell and Scott say the meaning is speculative (they say it is in
Theophrastus, by the way). I don't know why this should be, unless
it's one of those words which was revived for Modern Greek after a
period of oblivion.

Mike.

+ + +
I just found out that Liddell and Scott is the big dictionary that always
gives me such a hard time. When I looked it up ("sèmuda") the big dictionary
gave its meaning as Cercis siliquastrum and gave a location in Theophrastus:
H3.14.4, 5.7.7 which I assume is terribly meaningful to a scholar of
Theophrastus.
PvR