† cardiacen.

Etymology: In α. forms < post-classical Latin cardisce, former reading (in 16th-cent. editions of Pliny) of what is now normally read as enariste , denoting an unidentified precious stone, of unknown origin. In β. forms originally an error for the α. forms, arising from a misreading of the entry in Kersey (compare quot. 1708).Post-classical Latin cardisce occurs in a number of early modern works on natural history, following Pliny. Some 16th- and 17th-cent. Latin authors mention a Greek form καρδισκη (e.g. Calepino in the 1560 edition of his Dictionarium), but this does not appear to be attested in Greek. A derivation of this word from ancient Greek καρδία heart (see cardia n.) is sometimes suggested (e.g. by Martini in his Lexicon Philologicum (1655)). Compare Middle French cardisce (1584 in Du Pinet's translation of Pliny; compare quot. 1601). Compare the following earlier example of Latin cardisce in a Latin-English dictionary:1575 R. Waddington Véron's Dict. in Lat. & Eng. Cardisce,..a stone comming from the Dragons braine.