LURAM
| Lehite PN | 1. | NEPHITE soldier, 4th c. AD (Moroni 9:2) |
Etymology
The name element lrm forms part of an Aramaic PN, ʼdnlrm, found on a seal during the Hama, Syria, excavations. The same PN “is known from graffiti on three eighth-century bricks from” Hama. Nahman Avigad with some uncertainty transliterates the name as “Adanluram.” [1] This Aramaic PN appears to consist of three parts, ʼdn, which means “master” or “lord;” l, which is probably the precative[2] or asseverative particle lû, and the stative verb rūm,[3] meaning “lifted up, exalted.” LURAM would then mean in the precative “May he be exalted” (PYH), or in the asseverative, “Surely he is exalted” (JAT).
Less likely is a mixed name containing the Sumerian word for “man,” LÚ, and the Akkadian word for “exalted,” rām. Such mixing of languages in ancient Near Eastern names is rather unlikely.[4]
Much less likely is a derivation from Akkadian lurmû “pomegranate (tree).”[5]
See RAMEUMPTOM, RAMAH, RAMATH.
See also Luram / Laram Variants
Variants
Deseret Alphabet: 𐐢𐐆𐐅𐐡𐐊𐐣 (lɪuːrʌm)
Notes
- ↑ Nahman Avigad, Corpus of West Semitic Stamp Seals, revised and completed by Benjamin Sass (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1997), 285, n. 760. John Tvedtnes, John Gee, and Matthew Roper first drew attention to this name in LDS circles in their article, “Book of Mormon Names Attested in Ancient Hebrew Inscriptions,” JBMS 9/1 (2000):49.
- ↑ For the use of lû as a precative particle, see Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar §159l,m, and x.
- ↑ The same stative form of the verb rūm appears in the biblical names Ram (Ruth 4:19) and Abram.
- ↑ I am not aware of a single instance of mixed language names. The Akkadian word lumaḫḫu, a high ranking priest or purification priest (Chicago Assyrian Dictionary L 9:244) is not a name; it is a title. And it is not a mixed name because both elements, lu and maḫ are borrowed from Sumerian into Akkadian.
- ↑ Chicago Assyrian Dictionary L, 9:255.
