# O-RA₂ (ʾŌl)

> the Foremost (name element), from 'priority, supremacy'

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

- Reading: ʾŌl
- Confidence: Speculative. A proposed reading on a word too rare to test. Most occur only once.
- Root: [\*ʾawl-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/3783/index.md>) 'precede, be first' 1, 'priority, supremacy' 2, 'strength, (military) force' 3
- Kind: Personal name
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: O (o) · RA₂ (ra₂)

## Compared forms

- Ugaritic: *ảwl* — ảwl 'priority, supremacy' (?), 1.12 II 56, 'Cf. ảwldn' (DULAT 128)
- Arabic: ʾāla, ʾawila 'to precede, to be first' (Lane 126)
- Eblaite: *ʾūl* — ʾūl 'strength', a name element, √ʾwl 'to be strong, foremost' (Pagan 1998, elements 1971–1972)

## Attestations

- [HT 6a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT6a/index.md>): O-RA₂-DI-NE 2

## Commentary

Attested only within O-RA₂-DI-NE ʾŌl-dīn (HT 6a .4). ʾōl < *ʾawl, O writing ʾō < *ʾaw as in O-SU-QA-RE ʾō Sukar, RA₂ its primary value la. Dietrich and Loretz read ảwl in 1.12 II 56 as an address, 'oh Erster!' (DULAT 128). Rival: ʾil 'god', as in ỉldn (DULAT 52), O for ʾi. One witness.

## References

- Reading: di Mino; DULAT; Lane; Pagan 1998
- Pagan, Joseph M. (1998), Ebla Electronic Corpus: Onomastic Data Base. Undena Publications (1998 disk); HTML edition by G. Buccellati, IIMAS / Cybernetica Mesopotamica (2012)
- DULAT: del Olmo Lete, Gregorio; Sanmartín, Joaquín (2015), A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition. Brill, Leiden/Boston (Handbook of Oriental Studies 1/112); Third Revised Edition, tr. and ed. Wilfred G.E. Watson; 2 parts
- Lane: Lane, Edward William (1863), An Arabic-English Lexicon. Williams and Norgate, London

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/O-RA~E2~82~82/
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 add28e94.