ARCHEANTUS

Nephite PN

1.

Army leader, ca. 340 AD (Moroni 9:2)

It is possible that this word is Greek in origin. Greeks were known to have served as mercenaries in the Levant already during the Assyrian hegemony, and possibly as early as the reign of King David, if the Cherethites first mentioned in 1 Samuel 30:14 are Cretans, though there is still much debate about this. Note the later Palmyrene and Jewish Aramaic word ʾrkwn from the Greek ἄρχων, “chief civil magistrate” (DNWSI 109).

Less likely are etymologies based on other West Semitic languages. Confer the Punic epithet of the god Eshmun, the Ammonite (?) word for young cow, and West Semitic word for road, ʾrḥ (DNWSI 106–7). The root ʾrk appears with several meanings in West Semitic, “to be numerous,” “length,” and in Palmyrene, “magistracy,” as a borrowed word from Greek ἀρχή. ʿrk means “to put in order; valuation” (DNWSI 887–888), and ʿrq means “to meet; meeting”(DNWSI 889).