OLE+MI

anointing oil (mišḥā)

𐜗OLE+MI*6221 entries
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Reading
mišḥā
Confidence
Candidate
Root
*mašḥ- ‘to anoint, smear’
Kind
Commodity
Language
Semitic
Rank
—

Compared forms

  • Hebrewmišḥâmišḥâ ‘anointing, anointing oil’; šemen hammišḥâ ‘the anointing oil’, Exod 25:6 (HALOT 644)
  • Aramaicmešḥāmešḥā ‘oil’ (HALOT 1568)
  • Ugariticm-š-ḥ/m-š-ḥ/ ‘to anoint, oil’ (DULAT 582)
  • AmoriteMŚḤ ‘anoint’: maśīḥum, maśḥatum (Gelb AS 21, 25)

Attestations14 cited

  1. HT 14OLE+MI 3anointing oil
  2. HT 28aOLE+MI 1
  3. HT 42+59]OLE+MI 2anointing oil (sacred/ceremonial grade). 2 units
  4. HT 50aOLE+MI
  5. HT 58OLE+MI
  6. HT 90OLE+MI 1oil for anointing, sacred oil
  7. HT 91OLE+MI ≈ ¹⁄₆oil subtype; perhaps anointing or ceremonial oil
  8. HT 100OLE+MI 3anointing oil

Commentary

OLE with the complement MI, 19 tokens on 14 documents from Haghia Triada and Tylissos; it stands with OLE+U and OLE+KI on the allocation tablets HT 42+59, HT 91 and TY 3a, and with PA as PA-OLE+MI on TY 3b. MI writes mišḥ-, Northwest Semitic √m-š-ḥ ‘to anoint’: Ug. mšḥ ‘to anoint, oil’ (DULAT 582), Heb. māšaḥ. Biblical cult inventories name שֶׁמֶן הַמִּשְׁחָה šemen ham-mišḥā ‘the anointing oil’ (Exod 25:6; 29:7; 31:11; HALOT 644) and שֶׁמֶן מִשְׁחַת קֹדֶשׁ šemen mišḥat qōdeš ‘holy anointing oil’ (Exod 30:25, 31), a commodity named by its m-š-ḥ noun, as OLE is by MI. Ebla has the verb, ma-zi-ʔà (ARET 11 160), and Akkadian muššuʔu ‘to rub’, muššuʔtu ‘ointment’ (GlOS 2, 55). Weak point: the single sign MI carries the whole reading.

On the 3D inscriptions1 inscription

TY 3bTylissos2×OLE+MIOLE+MI
Linear A Lexicon