CAR
it The fineft myrrh ufually had moft of this poifon among it, and we may coiled* from the fame account that it was a (Weet-fceated gum, for other wife no body could have miftaken it for myrrh.
U ramus', in treating of the Abyflines, a people of Arabia, From whole country the antients had their fin eft myrrh, mentions a poifonous drucr, which he calls cerpathos or capathus; this is a fma.1! variation of the name, one of the moft common dia- lects of the Greek language changing the <r& into -,th ; and in thi very word, though given in another meaning, we find an Uiftaucc of it; for the cuyCarfafus orCarpafia. in the iflaud of Cyprus is,according to Stephens, called CWr^&wj byXenagoras. The wurd earpafus among the Greeks fignifies alfo a fort of linnen made of manufactured flax,andtheLatin carbafus ufed as the name of a fail, is, by the befl critics, fuppofed to be a word fewtched too far, the original meaning being no more than that of the Greek carp^us^inri^n.
CARPENTER, (Cyc/.) an artificer whofe bufinefs is to cut, fafnion, and join timber, and other wood for the purpofes of building.
The word is formed from the French chcrpentier, which fig- nines the fame, formed of tharpenU^ which denotes timber; or rather from the Latin carpentarius, a maker of carpenta. Vid. Savar. Di£t. Comm. T. i . p 684, feq. voc. charpente and char- pentier.
Some will alfo have carpentarius to have been ufed for him who drove a carpentum, or carriage a ; anfwering to a coach- man among us : but Henninius denies this acceptation of the word «►. — [* Berg, de ViisMilit 1. 4. Seel. ic. §. 8. b Hen- nin. Not ad euqd. ibid. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. J. p. 367.] See CarEentum.
Carpenter i were antiently denominated by the French, carpen- ters of the great hatchet, de la grand coignee, by way of distinc- tion from joiners, who were called carpenters of the little hat- chet, de la petite coign; e. Savor. Diet. Comm. Supp. p. 136.
S/jz/i-Carf enter is he employed in the docks, in the conftru- ■ff-ion and repairing of vefi'els Aubin. Diet. Mar. p. 194.
Carpenter of a pip is an officer at tea, whofe bufinefs is to have things in readinefs for keeping the veflel in repair; and to attend the (topping leaks, fifliing malts or yards, alfo caulk- ing, careening, breaming, and the like.
He is to watch the timber of the vellel that it do not rot ; con- fult frequently with other officers on the ftate of the mafts, yards ; and in time of battle he is to have plugs, tampions, and planks ready for repairing breaches made by the enemies cannon. Aubin. JDicL Mar. p. 194.
The carpenter has a mate under him, and a crew or gang to command on neceffary occafions.
CARPENTUM, in antiquity, a denomination common to divers ibrts of vehicles, anfwering to coaches as well as waggons, or even carts among us. Vid. Pitifc, Lex. Ant. T. i.p. 367, feq.
The carpentum was originally a kind of carr, or vehicle where- in the Roman ladies were carried ; though in after-times it was alfo ufed in war.
Some derive the word a carro ; others from Carmenta, mother of Evander, by a converfion of the m into p, carpentum for carmentum. Thus Ovid,
Nam prius Aufonias matres Carpenta vebebant Hecc qv.'.qp.e ah Evandri diEla parcnte rear.
Ovid. Faft. 1. 1. Calv. Lex. Jur, p, 150.
CARPERA. in ichthyology, a name given by Cuba, and fome other writers on fifties, to the carp. See the article Cy-
PRINTJS.
CARPERITARIA, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the barbarea or winter-crefs, a wild plant common in hedges in fpring. Chabraus, p. 278.
CARPESIA, in the materia medica of the antients, a name given to a kind of fpice, or aromatic drug, often mentioned by ^Egi- neta and others," and made an ingredient in cordial and ilo- machic medicines. This was a vegetable fubftance, being the tun fhoots of young twigs of an odoriferous fhrub, growing in P.mphylia, and fmelling very like the fineft cinnamon. Galen, who mentions this drug very frequently, makes two kinds of it different in goodnefs : the one he calls Laerticum, and the other Ponticum, but he fays that they both were gathered on the mountains of Pamphylia. Some of the copies of Ga- len have the word w«g« bitter, inftead of Pwiicmn ; but as we learn by Stephens's accounts that the Laerticum was de- rived from Laertes, the name of a mountain in Pamphylia, where the drug was gathered, it is moll: probable that the other name alfo was derived from the name of fome other place where it was gathered ; and it does not feem from any accounts given us of either kind of carpefium, that the epi- thet hitter could by any means be applied to them. Galen, do Med. Simp. 1. 7.
Julius Scaliger, in his exercitations againff Cardan, is of opi- nion that this latter kind had the name Pontic, becaufe of its being brought from Pontus. but he forgets that Galen faysex- prefiy that both were gathered on the mountains of Pamphy- lia. It is evident that the fecond, as we!! as the firft name h a derivative of the name of fome mountain of that country, and it may be a falfe fpeUing for Mr; on or SueJricon, either ot which give us the known names of mountains there. The
CAR
lilceneis in found of the words carpafmm and carpejia have given occafion to fome to fuppofe them the fame tiling; but they muff, have read very little of the antients who fall into this error. The carpafmm was a gum lb. nearly refembling the fined myrrh, that it was often mhtaken for it: it came from, the country of the Abyilines, and was often mixed with the myrrh, and was (o terrible a poifon that many lives were loft by the taking it among, or inftead of, myrrh. This Galen af- fures us. That the carpefium was not this fubftance, is very evident, fince it was neither a gum nor a poifon, but a fafe and cordial internal medicine, and the young fhoots of a tree, or fhrub : but what it really was is not fo clear. Aqu- arius is of opinion that the cazpejia and the cubebs were the fame thing; but this is evidently erroneous: they are nearer the mark who fuppofe it to have "been the young fhoots of the tree whofe fruit was the cubebs ; but there are great rcafons even againflthis. Scaliger, Exercit. As the antients ufed both this drug and cubebs, it is certain that had they both been the produce of the fame tree, they muft have known it; and this it is plain they did not knew, for they haveno where named any fuch thing, but, on the contrary they have exprefly laid, that the carpejia was thefhoo:s of a tall tree, which produced no fruit. Avifenha gives alfo this ac- count, and adds, that it grew, in his time, on mount Leba- non, and that the part gathered for ufe was certain twigs, ve- ry long, cylindric, and but little thicker than a needle, which had a very fragrant fmell.
CARPESIUM, in the materia medica, a name given by fome authors to cubebs. Ger. Emac. Ind. 2. See CaRPESIA
CARPET (CycL) — The chief furniture of the Turkifn houfes are carpets, or mats of Grand Cairo, neatly wrought with ftraw, fpread on the ground. Vid. Phil. Tranf. ^155. p. 444, feq.
CAKVET-kni-hts, a denomination given to gown-men and others of peaceable profeffions, who, on account of their, birth, office, or merits to the public, or the like, are, by the prince, raifed to the dignity of knighthood.
They take the appellation carpet, by reafon they ufuslly receive their honours from the king's hands in the court, kneeling on a carpet.
By which they are diftinguifhed from knights' created in the camp, or field of battle, on account of their military prowefs.
Carpet- knights pofTcfs a medium between thofe called trick, or dunghill- tnigbts, who only purchafe, or merit the honour by their wealth ; and knigbts-batchelors, who are created for their fervices in the wars. Vid. Markh. Book of Hon. Dec. z. Ep.8.
CARPINUS, the hornbeam, in botany, the name of a genus of trees, the characters' of which are thefe : the flower is of the catkin kind, being compofed of a number of fmall leaves, af- fixed to an axis in a fquammofe manner, under each of which there ftand a great number of ftamina : thefe are the barren male flowers, the embryo fruits appearing in other parts of the tree, between the leaves of larger and more beautiful fpikes ; which finally become a fruit of an umbiheated kind, com preflcd and ftriated, and containing a roundifh nut or kernel, pointed at one end.
There is only one known fpecies of the carpinus? which is the common hornbeam. Tourn. Infi. p. $82.
CARPIONE, in ichthyology, a name given by Salvian to the fifh called by other writers carpio locus Btriaci. It is a fpecies of the falmon-kind, and is the fame with that fifh called in fome parts of England the gilt charre. Artedi diftinguifhes it from the other fpecies of the falmons by calling it the fmall falmon with five rows of teeth in the palate. See the article Salmo.
CARPUS, K«f»i&;, fruit. The word in this fenfe is too well known and underitood to admit of any explanation ; but it is neceffary to obferve that the old Greek writers did not keep ftriiSlly to the fen^e of the word, limiting it, as we do, to that part of a plant or tree which fucceeds the flower, and in which the feeds are contained ; but they often ufed it in a larger fenfe, and expreffed by it the efculent part of a plant, though it did not ferve to this purpofe. 1 hus the roots of the bulbus edulis, and many other plants of this kind, are called, even by The- ophraitus, carpi ; and, in fome of the lefs known plants, great errors have arffen from this. The Arabians exprefi'ed by the word hab, what the Greeks did by ca>pos, and ufed it in the fame unlimited fcnCe, and this having not been obferved, we have many commentators arguing for certain fubffanccs not being roots, becaufe called hab and carpi $ and yet thefe cer- tainly ara fuch, only called fruits becaufe they fupply the ufe of fruits to the eater. The roots of the trafi or avellanda are called fruits by many of the old authrs, and Theophraftus ex- prefly calls the tuberous roots of the arachidna its fruit.
C ARPUM fitSentium interior, in anatomy, a name given by Spi- gelius to the muftis called by Albinus ulnaris inteiTuts y and by W inflow, i'nte > rius cubita-.is.
CARPUS. See the article Wrist.
CARR, carrum, in the middle age, denoted any fort of vehicle, or carriage, either by landorfea. Kenn. Gloff adFaroch.An- tiq. in voc. caracla.
LARRAC, or Cahraca, a name given by the Portuguefe ro
the
