Historical

Abstract

The word cambium apparently originated in the Arabic language, where it was used in medicine and surgery. Möbius (1934) attempted to trace derivation of the term from the Arabic to its first appearance in early French texts and dictionaries. However, he found it difficult to discover just how the term cambium was derived from its Arabic roots and when it was first applied to the “building sap” of plants. Schopfer (1947) encountered similar difficulties in his attempt to trace the term. Both authors cited the 1863 edition of Littré’s dictionary in which cambium was defined as a “sue nutritif ”, a nutritive sap or substance, elaborated to furnish material for growth of the plant. In this work Littré¹ mentioned a 14th century text by Arnault de Villeneuve² (Schopfer) or Arnold von Villanova (Möbius) who was knowledgeable in Arabic and who referred to the cambium as a “humour. ” The term was also used in gardening to refer to tissues which in the process of formation appeared gelatinous. However, Littré was unclear as to how the term cambium was derived from the Latin words “cambire, ” or “cambio, ” which mean change.