Akkadian edit

Etymology edit

Unknown. Henry Ludwig Fr. Lutz opted to read the sign 𒄯 with the common value ḫar instead of mur, requiring one occurrence containing mu-ur- as referring to another plant, and deems the remainder to render Arabic *أَخُو أَرْضٍ (*ʔaḵū ʔarḍin, literally earth brother).[1] This seems out of question since we realize that the modern value [dˤ], now transcribed superficially similarly , was in antiquity a voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮˤ]. Neither afford مَرْد (mard, toothbrush-tree fruits) thorns, as behoves by the Akkadian descriptions, or Arabic in general any transferrable ending. The structure hints to an Anatolian loanword with a privative a.[2]

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

amurdinnum m (El-Amarna, Standard Babylonian, Neo-Assyrian)

  1. The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
    Synonym: 𒌑𒄉 (ašāgum)
    1. bramble, blackberry
    2. boxthorn
    3. manna tree, Alhagi maurorum
    4. jujube
  2. a disease of the eyes

Alternative forms edit

Cuneiform spellings
Logograms Phonetic

References edit

  1. ^ Lutz, Henry Ludwig Frederick (1950) “The Name of the Jujube Tree in Babylonia”, in Journal of the American Oriental Society[1], volume 70, number 2, pages 108–109
  2. ^ Haas, Volkert (2003) Materia Magica et Medica Hethitica. Ein Beitrag zur Heilkunde im Alten Orient (in German), Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, →DOI, page 244

Further reading edit

  • Thompson, Reginald Campbell (1941) Cyril John Gadd, editor, A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany[2], London: The British Academy, published 1949, page 330
  • “amurdinnu”, in The Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (CAD)[3], volume 1, A, part 2, Chicago: University of Chicago Oriental Institute, 1968, pages 90b–91a