# NU-WI (nōwē) > steppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment—qualifier after a personal name A Linear A word in the Linear A Lexicon. The reading is a proposal and carries its tier. - Reading: nōwē - Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once. - Root: [\*nwy]() 'pasture land, grazing place' 1, 'abode, settlement' 2, 'to betake oneself to an abode' 3 - Kind: Personnel - Language: Semitic - Signs: NU (nu) · WI (wi) - Rank: Amorite-linked appendix ## Compared forms - Amorite: NW *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-ú* — LÚ na-mu-ú 'steppe-dweller' (Ugarit), ERÍN.MEŠ na-me-e (Alalakh IV), personnel terms (GlOS 2, 116) - Hebrew: נָוֶה *nāweh* — נָוֶה nāweh 'pasture, abode'; construct נְוֵה nᵊwēh, as נְוֵה רֹעִים 'abode of shepherds' (Jer 33:12) - Akkadian: nawû / namû 'pasturage; flocks; steppe' (ORACC CAMS/GKAB) - Sabaic: *nwy* — nwy 'watering place; channel' (Biella 1982: 297) - Safaitic: *nwy* — nwy 'migrating', ptc. G (KRS 1949; Al-Jallad 2026, 107) ## Attestations - [HT 115a](): NU-WI 2 — steppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment (qualifier after a personal name), 2 - [HT 115b](): TI-NU-JA NU-WI GRA ¹⁄₂ — steppe-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. ## Same root - [A-TA-I-\*301-WA-JA]() (ʾatainawaya) - [A-TA-I-\*301-WA-E]() (ʾatainawē) - [\*301]() (nawā) - [I-NA-WA]() (ʾi-nawā) ## In the onomasticon - [NU-WI](): Title, Semitic ## References - Reading: di Mino; GORILA I; Gelb 1980; GlOS 2; Harding 1971; Al-Jallad 2026; Wb 2; ORAEC - EA: Moran, William L. (1992), The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press - AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago - APNM: Huffmon, Herbert B. (1965), Amorite Personal Names in the Mari Texts: A Structural and Lexical Study. The Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore - Biella: Biella, Joan Copeland (1982), Dictionary of Old South Arabic: Sabaean Dialect. Scholars Press (Harvard Semitic Studies 25) - Harding, G. Lankester (1971), An Index and Concordance of Pre-Islamic Arabian Names and Inscriptions. Near and Middle East Series 8,University of Toronto Press - ORACC CAMS/GKAB: ORACC Project (2024), ORACC CAMS/GKAB Glossary (Akkadian Literary Lexicon). oracc.museum.upenn.edu - GORILA I: Godart, Louis; Olivier, Jean-Pierre (1976), Recueil des inscriptions en linéaire A, volume 1: Tablettes éditées avant 1970 (GORILA I). École française d'Athènes (Études crétoises XXI, 1); Librairie orientaliste Paul Geuthner, Paris - GlOS 2: Sanmartín, Joaquín (2024), A Glossary of Old Syrian, Volume 2: l – z. Languages of the Ancient Near East 8/2,Eisenbrauns (Pennsylvania State University Press), University Park - Al-Jallad, Ahmad (2026), Dictionary of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia, Volume I: Safaitic. Online Corpus of the Inscriptions of Ancient North Arabia (OCIANA) --- Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/NU-WI/ 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.