CUMENI

Lehite GN

1.

City, ca. 65 BC (Alma 56:14; 57:34)

It is possible that this is also a personal name because of the fairly common Nephite combination of the PN ending in “-i” with its suffixed PN counterpart ending in “-hah,” where both are PNs, and because some places were named after the first person who settled there.* Several North-west Semitic etymologies are possible, though none of them are convincing. Hebrew kmn, meaning “to hide, to hide up,” might give a translation “Hidden-away.” Cf. also the Ugaritic PNs kmn and bn kmn, etymology unknown (JH). Less likely is the common Semitic vocabel kam(m)ō/ūn*, from which we get our English word “cumin,” giving the translation, “[Place of] Cumin,” or reading with a gentilic ending, “[The One of] Cumin.”

Cf. also these ancient Near Eastern names: gāmôn, a city in Gilead, Judges 10:5 (RFS); Akkadian kummanu, name of neoHittite kingdom of Tabalian Confederation, ca. 900 BC, near sites of kummuḫi and gurgum (RFS); Akkadian (?) kummanni (Classical Camana Cappadiciae), a religious center/city during the time of King Azzi-Hayasa (?—ee Roux) (RFS); and Hittite kamanas, prince of Carchemish ca. 750 BC (RFS).

Other possibilities include Egyptian kmn, “blind one” (EHA); Egyptian k3mn, “the Bull is established” (Coptic kemēn), a place near Ihnasya in central Egypt (RFS); and Akkadian kummu, “holy place, shrine, sanctuary” (RFS).

Cf. Book of Mormon KUMEN, KISHKUMEN, KUMENONHI, CUMENIHAH

See also Cumeni Variant