Aguaxima

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The page of the Encyclopédie with the article Aguaxima
The Congojute ( Urena lobata ), also called aguaxima in Brazil .

“Aguaxima” is an entry by Denis Diderot in his encyclopédie . The article on the plant, also called the Congojute , appeared in the first volume of the Encyclopédie in 1751 on page 191.

meaning

This section about a South American plant became famous because Diderot, according to the short definition "The Aguaxima is a plant of Brazil and the islands of southern America", reflects the uselessness of the many short entries in his own encyclopedic project: Whoever does not know the Aguaxima is for him the almost empty description is meaningless; But anyone who knows the plant because of its origin does not need the entry. Diderot included such articles in his lexicon simply out of “a favor to certain readers” who would prefer a bad description to no lemma at all .

object

Aguaxima (or guaxima ) is in Brazil used Portuguese-speaking term for Urena lobata ( Urena lobata ), a world in the tropics common plant from the family of mallow (Malvaceae), which is widely regarded as a weed, but is also cultivated for Bastfaserngewinnung. The Malvastrum coromandelianum , which belongs to the same family , is also referred to as (a) guaxima in Brazil . The word comes from the Tupi language .

text

«AGUAXIMA, (Hist. Nat. Bot.) Planned du Brésil & des isles de l'Amérique méridionale. Voilà tout ce qu'on nous en dit; & je demanderois volontiers pour qui de pareilles descriptions sont faites. Ce ne peut être pour les naturels du pays, qui vraissemblablement connoissent plus de caracteres de l'aguaxima, que cette description n'en renferme, & à qui on n'a pas besoin d'apprendre que l'aguaxima naît dans leur pays; c'est, comme si l'on disoit à un François, que le poirier est un arbre qui croît en France, en Allemagne, & c. Ce n'est pas non plus pour nous; car que nous importe qu'il y ait au Brésil un arbre appellé aguaxima, si nous n'en savons que ce nom? à quoi sert ce nom? Il laisse les ignorans tels qu'ils sont; il n'apprend rien aux autres: s'il m'arrive donc de faire mention de cette plante, & de plusieurs autres aussi mal caractérisées, c'est par condescendance pour certains lecteurs, qui aiment mieux ne rien trouver dans un article de Dictionnaire , ou même n'y trouver qu'une sottise, que de ne point trouver l'article du tout. »

"AGUAXIMA (natural history. Botany) plant of Brazil and the islands of southern America. That is all we are told of her, and I would like to ask for whom such descriptions are made. It cannot be for the natives of the land, who probably know more of the characteristics of the Aguaxima than this description implies, and who need not be taught that the Aguaxima grows in their land; it is like telling a French that the pear tree is a tree that grows in France, Germany, etc. It cannot be meant for us either; for what is it to us that there is a tree in Brazil called Aguaxima if we don't know more about it than its name? Whom does this name benefit? He leaves the ignorant in their ignorance, and he teaches the others nothing: So if this plant is mentioned here, and many others are just as poorly described, it is a favor for certain readers who would rather find nothing or only a stupidity in an encyclopedia article than no article at all. "

- Denis Diderot : Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers , Volume 1, p. 191

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brazilian popular names of various medicinal plants (PDF; 167 kB) of the Coleção Brasileira de Microrganismos de Ambiente e Indústria (under G for Guaxima) and Guaxima ( Memento from June 13, 2008 in the Internet Archive )

Web links