SEMANTIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF ARABIC-ORIGIN MEDICAL LEXEMES IN “THE CANON OF MEDICINE”: A CASE STUDY OF UZBEK FOLK MEDICINE AND ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS

Abstract

This article investigates the semantic transformations undergone by Arabic-origin medical lexemes as they migrated from Ibn Sina's Kitab al-Qanun fi al-Tibb (The Canon of Medicine, c. 1025 CE) into Uzbek folk medicine vocabulary and their subsequent rendering into English. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of historical semantics, loanword typology, and ethnolinguistics, the study analyses a representative corpus of Arabic medical terms that entered the Uzbek lexical system through the Canon and traces the semantic shifts narrowing, broadening, pejoration, amelioration, and metaphorical extension they underwent across centuries of practical folk use. The article further examines how these culturally embedded Uzbek folk-medicine terms find equivalents, partial equivalents, or descriptive translations in English, highlighting the asymmetries that arise when culturally specific medical concepts migrate across typologically and culturally distant languages. The findings contribute to the comparative lexicology of medical terminology and to the broader understanding of how canonical scientific texts shape vernacular language over time