# OLE+MI (mišḥā)

> anointing oil (mišḥā)

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

- Reading: mišḥā
- Confidence: Candidate. A comparison worth testing; the evidence is thin or the word is rare.
- Root: [\*mašḥ-](<https://linear-a.ai/roots/2714/index.md>) 'to anoint, smear'
- Kind: Commodity
- Language: Semitic
- Signs: OLE+MI

## Compared forms

- Hebrew: *mišḥâ* — mišḥâ 'anointing, anointing oil'; šemen hammišḥâ 'the anointing oil', Exod 25:6 (HALOT 644)
- Aramaic: *mešḥā* — mešḥā 'oil' (HALOT 1568)
- Ugaritic: *m-š-ḥ* — /m-š-ḥ/ 'to anoint, oil' (DULAT 582)
- Amorite: MŚḤ 'anoint': maśīḥum, maśḥatum (Gelb AS 21, 25)

## Attestations

- [HT 14](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT14/index.md>): OLE+MI 3 — anointing oil
- [HT 28a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT28a/index.md>): OLE+MI 1
- [HT 42+59](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT42~2B59/index.md>): \]OLE+MI 2 — anointing oil (sacred/ceremonial grade). 2 units
- [HT 50a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT50a/index.md>): OLE+MI
- [HT 58](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT58/index.md>): OLE+MI
- [HT 90](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT90/index.md>): OLE+MI 1 — oil for anointing, sacred oil
- [HT 91](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT91/index.md>): OLE+MI ≈ ¹⁄₆ — oil subtype; perhaps anointing or ceremonial oil
- [HT 100](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT100/index.md>): OLE+MI 3 — anointing oil
- [HT 101](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT101/index.md>): OLE+MI 8
- [HT 116a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT116a/index.md>): OLE+MI 6
- [HT 125a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT125a/index.md>): OLE+MI 1 ¹⁄₂ — anointing or ceremonial oil(?)
- [HT 137](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/HT137/index.md>): OLE+MI 6
- [TY 3a](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/TY3a/index.md>): OLE+MI
- [TY 3b](<https://linear-a.ai/texts/TY3b/index.md>): KI-RI-SI OLE+MI 6 — PA with the oil ligature OLE+MI; 220

## 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.

## References

- Reading: Hebrew Bible, Exod 25:6; 29:7; 30:25, 31; 31:11; DULAT 582; GlOS 2; corpus distribution
- AS 21: Gelb, Ignace J. (1980), Computer-aided Analysis of Amorite. Assyriological Studies 21,The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
- 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
- EbDA: Ebla Digital Archives (CNR), Ebla Digital Archives (EbDA): ARET, ARES and MEE text editions. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
- 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
- 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

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Page: https://linear-a.ai/lexicon/OLE~2BMI/
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.