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. This PN “is known," according to the late Israeli archaeologist Nahman Avigad, "from graffiti on three eighth-century bricks from” Hama, which Avigad with some uncertainty transliterated as “Adanluram.”[1] This Aramaic PN appears to consist of three parts, ʼdn, which means “master” or “lord;” lū, 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). LURAM could possibly then be a hypocoristic form for the hypothetical fuller name luramel or luramyahu "God/Jehovah is surely exalted."
LURAM as a mixed name containing the Sumerian word for “man,” LÚ, and the Akkadian word for “exalted,” rām is somewhat less likely. Such mixing of languages in ancient Near Eastern names is quite uncommon.[4] The derivation of LURAM from the Akkadian noun lurmû “pomegranate (tree),”[5] is also somewhat unlikely.
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.
- ↑ HALOT, sub לו. For a discussion of the use of lû as a precative particle, see GKC §159l, m, and x.
- ↑ The same stative verb rūm appears in the biblical names Ram (Ruth 4:19) and Abram.
- ↑ Paul Hoskisson is not aware of a single instance of mixed language names before the Persian conquest. The Akkadian word lumaḫḫu, a high ranking priest or purification priest (CAD L 9:244) is not a name; it is a title. And it is not a mixed name because both elements, lú and maḫ are Sumerian and were borrowed as a unit into Akkadian.
- ↑ CAD L, 9:255.
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