KI-RE-TA-NA
Cretan (gentilic: 'of Crete')
- Reading
- Kretan
- Confidence
- Confirmed
- Root
- *karVt- ‘to cut, cut off’
- Kind
- Toponym
- Language
- Semitic
- Rank
- #6 of the top 100
Compared forms
- Hebrewכְּרֵתִיםkərētîmkərētîm (כְּרֵתִים) ‘Kerethites’: gôy kərētîm ‘nation of Kerethites’, beside kənaʿan ʾereṣ pəlištîm ‘Canaan, land of the Philistines’ (Zeph 2:5); wəhikrattî ʾet-kərētîm ‘and I will cut off the Kerethites’ (Ezek 25:16); hakkərētî wəhappəlētî ‘the Kerethite and the Pelethite’, David’s guard (2 Sam 8:18)
- Linear Bke-re-te Krēteske-re-te Krētes ‘Cretans’, an ethnic (PY An 128.3; Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 147); ke-re-si-jo we-ke ‘of Cretan workmanship’, of tripods (PY Ta 641, 709; Ventris and Chadwick 1956, 396)
- GreekΚρής, pl. Κρῆτες ‘Cretan(s)’; Κρήτη ‘Crete’
- Ugariticsee KI-RE-TA₂
Attestations4 cited
Commentary
HT 2, HT 8a, HT 108 and HT 120, all at Haghia Triada: Kretan ‘Cretan’, the gentilic -ān on the name written KI-RE-TA₂ and KI-RI-TA₂, twice each; cf. Heb. kərētī ‘Kerethite’ (כְּרֵתִי). Ug. krt is /kirta/, the protagonist Kirta, and lkrt /li-kirta/ ‘belonging to the story of Kirta’; Huehnergard rejects the vocalization ‘keret’ as non-Ugaritic, and BH kərētī differs in its vowels (Huehnergard 2012, 60, 68).