# KI-RO (kilʾu)

> owed, outstanding balance (deficit)—transaction term heading deficit sections

A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier.

- Reading: kilʾu
- Confidence: Confirmed. The function is fixed inside the corpus (position, arithmetic, commodity signs). The etymology may still be a proposal.
- Root: [\*kVlVʔ-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/2998/index.md>) 'to hinder, restrain'
- Kind: Administrative
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: KI (ki) · RO (ro)
- Rank: #3 of the top 100

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: כָּלָא *kālāʾ* — kālāʾ (כָּלָא) 'withhold, keep back' (HALOT 475)
- Akkadian: *kalû* — kalû 'hold back, detain'; adj. kalû 'held (back)' (ORACC CAMS/GKAB)
- Syriac: *klʾ* — klʾ (ܟܠܐ) 'restrain'
- Geʿez: *kalʾa* — kalʾa (ከልአ) 'held back, refused'

## Attestations

- [HT 1](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT1/index.md>): KI-RO 197 — owed / outstanding balance (deficit)
- [HT 15](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT15/index.md>): \*188 KI-RO 400
- [HT 30](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT30/index.md>): KI-RO CYP 8
- [HT 34](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT34/index.md>): KI-RO 30 \[\[7\]\]
- [HT 37](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT37/index.md>): KI-RO
- [HT 88](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT88/index.md>): KI-RO — owed / outstanding balance (deficit)
- [HT 93b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT93b/index.md>): KI-RO — owed, outstanding
- [HT 94b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT94b/index.md>): KI-RO — owed (transaction header)
- [HT 117a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT117a/index.md>): MA-KA-RI-TE KI-RO U-MI-NA-SI — owed / outstanding balance (deficit)
- [HT 123+124a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT123~2B124a/index.md>): KI-RO 1 .3 — owed, outstanding balance
- [HT 123+124b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT123~2B124b/index.md>): KI-RO 5 — owed, outstanding balance

## Commentary

KI-RO marks what is owed or outstanding, against KU-RO 'total'. HT 15: 684 + 570 = 1254 beside KI-RO 400, outstanding 400. KI-RO heads sections that close in KU-RO with exact sums (HT 88, six entries of 1, KU-RO 6; HT 117a, ten of 1, KU-RO 10; HT 94b, five of 1, KU-RO 5), and a total cannot head a list. On HT 1, KI-RO 197 stands before four quantities that sum to 336. HT 30's KI-RO section re-lists the main section's commodities in smaller quantities, the delivered and outstanding split. HT 34.6 balances: SA+MU+KU 100, then PA₃ 70 and KI-RO 30 (30 written over an erased 7), 70 handed over and 30 outstanding (Schrijver 2014, 7). Schoep reads 'deficit', clearest where KI-RO follows KU-RO with a smaller entry (HT 123a.9; less clearly HT 93b.1), with Killen's caveat (Schoep 2002, 163–164). KI-RO quantities are not summed into KU-RO; where a tablet marks the split, the residual is delivered less owed, and none of the 13 gives KI-RO the exact sum of the items above it. *kilʾu 'what is held back', from √k-l-ʾ 'hold back, withhold' (2998), RO for l, the glottal stop unwritten, -u the case ending: Heb. kālāʾ 'withhold, keep back', Akk. kalû 'hold back'. KU-RO kull- (√k-l-l) differs in vowel and third radical.

## References

- Reading: di Mino; Schoep 2002; Schrijver 2014
- ORACC CAMS/GKAB: ORACC Project (2024), ORACC CAMS/GKAB Glossary (Akkadian Literary Lexicon). oracc.museum.upenn.edu
- HALOT: Koehler, Ludwig; Baumgartner, Walter; Stamm, Johann Jakob; Richardson, M. E. J. (trans. and ed.) (1994), The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament, vols. I–IV. E. J. Brill, Leiden · New York · Köln
- Schoep, Ilse (2002), The Administration of Neopalatial Crete: A Critical Assessment of the Linear A Tablets and Their Role in the Administrative Process. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca (Minos Suplemento 17)
- Schrijver, Peter (2014), Fractions and food rations in Linear A. Kadmos,53 (1–2),Walter de Gruyter,1–44

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/KI-RO/
Licence: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Cite as: di Mino, Tom. 2026. Linear A Lexicon. Plasma AI. https://linear-a.ai/. Data: kaphtor, commit 50525edd.