NU-WI

steppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment—qualifier after a personal name

𐘯NUAB5527 entries𐘣WIAB4012 entries
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Reading
nōwē
Confidence
Speculative
Root
*nwy ‘pasture land, grazing place’ 1, ‘abode…’
Kind
Personnel
Language
Semitic
Rank
Amorite-linked appendix

Compared forms

  • AmoriteNW *naw(u)-, *nawiy- ‘steppe; encampment (man and beast)’; Mari nawûm, feminine (Huffmon APNM p. 237); BU-NU-NA-WI-E (Gelb 1980, no. 1342)
  • Akkadian (Ugarit, Alalakh)LÚ na-mu-úLÚ na-mu-ú ‘steppe-dweller’ (Ugarit), ERÍN.MEŠ na-me-e (Alalakh IV), personnel terms (GlOS 2, 116)
  • Hebrewנָוֶהnāwehנָוֶה nāweh ‘pasture, abode’; construct נְוֵה nᵊwēh, as נְוֵה רֹעִים ‘abode of shepherds’ (Jer 33:12)
  • Akkadiannawû / namû ‘pasturage; flocks; steppe’ (ORACC CAMS/GKAB)
  • Sabaicnwynwy ‘watering place; channel’ (Biella 1982: 297)
  • Safaiticnwynwy ‘migrating’, ptc. G (KRS 1949; Al-Jallad 2026, 107)

Attestations2 cited

  1. HT 115aNU-WI 2steppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment (qualifier after a personal name), 2
  2. HT 115bTI-NU-JA NU-WI GRA ¹⁄₂steppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment (qualifier after a personal name)

Commentary

HT 115b TI-NU-JA · NU-WI · GRA ½; HT 115a RI-TA-MA / NU-WI 2, under a GRA+BOSm heading, one scribe (Scribe 8). Two men carry it, so it names a class, as LÚ na-mu-ú ‘steppe-dweller’ at Ugarit (GlOS 2, 116). On HT 115a the copie tabulaire joins RỊ-TẠ-MẠ-NU-WI, and GORILA’s note on .2 allows the divider (GORILA I 189). NU-WI writes the G participle nōwē ‘migrant’, Safaitic nwy ‘migrating’ (KRS 1949; Al-Jallad 2026, 107), with the ō of the Canaanite shift, as su₂-ki-na sōkinu ‘prefect’ (EA 362). Weak point: only Safaitic attests the participle. Rivals: a patronymic ‘(son of) Nuwī’, Arabian PN nwy (Harding 1971, 604), which needs the two men to be brothers; Egyptian nw ‘hunter; scout’ (Wb 2, 218.19–21), as nw n tꜣ ḫꜣs.t ‘hunter of the desert’ (pKoller, pAnastasi; ORAEC 313, 360). See *301 and I-NA-WA.

On the 3D inscriptions

Not written on any of the 82 inscriptions modelled so far.

Linear A Lexicon