Proto-Semitic root

*nwy

‘pasture land, grazing place’ 1, ‘abode, settlement’ 2, ‘to betake oneself to an abode’ 3

di Mino’s gloss: pasture, abode; to dwell

Record 3654 ↗ · Basis: kaphtor

In Linear A5 entries

*301nawāpastureland, pastoral product (commodity logogram: nawum in administrative register…)ProbableSemitic240A-TA-I-*301-WA-EʾatainawēI make myself a dwelling (Palaikastro dialect variant, 1cs tG-stem middle-reflexive of…)ConfirmedSemitic13DA-TA-I-*301-WA-JAʾatainawayaI make myself a dwelling (1cs tG-stem middle-reflexive denominative of √NWY)ConfirmedSemitic113DI-NA-WAʾi-nawāthe dwelling, abode (sanctuary as divine habitation)CandidateSemitic13DNU-WInōwēsteppe-dweller, (man) of the encampment—qualifier after a personal nameSpeculativeSemitic2

Notes

HALOT 678 traces nāweh from ‘destination point (of semi-nomadic tribes)’, Arabic nawan, niyyat ‘destination’, to ‘pasture’ and ‘settlement’. Streck 2000, 108 leaves open whether Mari nawū is Akkadian or an Amorite loan; Sanmartín GlOS 2, 116 calls |n-w-y| a culture word. Targum Onqelos renders nāweh by dyrʾ (Exod 15:13) and wəʾanwēhû (Exod 15:2) by wəʾebnē leh maqdəšāʾ ‘and I will build Him a sanctuary’; the Palestinian Targums and the Peshitta read ‘praise’. At Mari the Simʾalites swore by the gods of the nawûm (Streck 2004, 424).

Reflexes8 languages

East Semitic1

Northwest Semitic4

Arabic2

  • Pre-Islamic North ArabianSafaitic nw 3nwy 1nwy, nwʾ 3ptc. nwy 3, KRS 1949 (Al-Jallad 2026, 107)gloss withheld
  • Arabicnawā ‘to intend, aim at’intawā (VIII) ‘to repair to a place of abode’ 3nawan ‘destination of a journey’ (Lane 3040)

Epigraphic South Arabian1

† Gloss withheld: the cited dictionary’s licence is closed, so its form and page stand without its gloss.

Linear A Lexicon