The material of the Latinitatis medii aevi lexicon Bohemorum includes the terms ypnapus, vipera and rais, preserved, like dozens of other zoological names, in the Glossary written by the fourteenth-century lexicographer Bartholomaeus of Chlumec. Although the creatures denoted by these names belong to different animal classes and the words are found in two separate chapters of the Glossary, Claretus’ Czech equivalents (ohltan, ohltnik and ohlta) are derived from the same stem. The main aim of this article is to identify the origins and meanings of the Latin terms, in all probability borrowed by Claretus from Thomas of Cantimpré's encyclopaedia, and explore the motives behind the creation of the three Czech equivalents. - [Abstract]

Language: Czech