ἄμι <Egyptian?; Hellenistic period>
👉 ἄμι, gen. -εως or -ιος, n. – ‘ajowan (Trachyspermum ammi (L.) Sprague) or pick tooth (Ammi visnaga (L.) Lam.)’ (P.Tebt. 1 55.5: 2nd c. BCE; P.Tebt. 1 190v: 1st c. BCE; SB 6 9612.7 (gen. ἄμι<ο>ς): 1st c. BCE; Dsc. 3.62; etc.), also ἄμμι (Eudemus in: SH 412A.7; Androm. 157; Gal. 6.267, 11.747 etc.); cf. ἄμι ἄγριον ‘dragon arum (Dracunculus vulgaris Schott)’ (Dsc. 2.166 RV).
⚠ Cf. Plin., NH 20.163: Est cumino simillimum quod Graeci vocant ami. (...) similis autem et huic (scil. cumino) usus. namque et panibus Alexandrinis subditur et condimentis interponitur. – “There is a plant very like cummin which the Greeks call ami. (...) Yet its use is similar to that of cummin, for it is put under loaves of bread at Alexandria and included among the ingredients of Alexandrian sauces” (trans. W.H.S. Jones); moreover, note that this plant was often called ‘Ethiopian cummin’ (Dsc. 3.62; Plin., NH 20.163; etc.).
🅔 Perhaps an Egyptian loanword, but its etymology is unknown. Scholars have tried to link it to the following words: 1. Egyptian mjmj ‘a plant (according to an interpretation, sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench))’; 2. Egyptian ꜥmꜣ (actually ꜥmꜣw) ‘a plant’.
📖 Ref.: cf. Brugsch 1891: 26-28; Gardiner 1941-48: II, 113f.; Germer 2008: 41 and 77; Hemmerdinger 1968: 247; Hemmerdinger 1970: 53; Keimer 1924-84: I, 149; Mayser – Schmoll 1970: 26; Pierce 1971: 100f.; Torallas Tovar 2004: 179.