AMGID

Jaredite PN

1.

King (usurper) (Ether 10:32)

Until Jaredite can be connected with a known ancient language and culture, attempts at etymologies are at best wild guesses. If, however, a Semitic background for the language is assumed, then a good etymology suggests itself. The element am in this name could be ʿm, a common Semitic kinship term meaning variously “people, clan, paternal uncle, grandfather” (KB, 710), and appears in several biblical PNs, e.g., Ammiel, Ammihud, Amram, and Amraphel. The second element, gid, compares to dg in the biblical PNs Gad, Gaddi, and Gaddiel and Ugaritic gd in the PN *ngrgd, “Wish/oath of (the god of) Fortune/Luck” (Gröndahl, 32). Cp. also the Amorite PNs with gyd (CAAA, p. 299, under gjd). Amgid could thus mean “people of fortune”

Notes

Cf. The Ur III PN AB.BAgada (Gelb, 225), where the first element appears to be Akkadian abum, “father” (Gelb, 9) (JAT).

In addition to the name listed above, for the element ʿm in Hebrew PNs, cf. Hebrew seal with *ʿamnôn (HWN in SC 195). Other Semitic languages also have the element ʿm in PNs. E.g., in ESA we have Qatabanian ʾwsʿm, y šrʿm, nbt.ʿm and ys.rʿm (ANET 668:2), plus the DN ʿm (ANET 668:1, 2; 669:1), Hadrami ʿmdhr (ANET 670:2), and Minaean ʿmkrb (cf. ʾbkrb) (ANET 666:2) and ʿmsmy (ANET 667:2) (JAT).

Cf. Book of Mormon AMINADAB, AMINADI, AMMAH (Why not Gad or Gid?)