TEANCUM
| Lehite PN & GN | 1. Soldier, ca. 67 BC (Alma 50:35; 62:37) |
| 2. City, 4th c. AD (Mormon 4:3, 6–7, 14) |
No etymology is suggested. Perhaps tʾnq, tʾnk, tʾng, tʿnq, tʿnk, tʿng.
It was the Nephite custom to name a city after the first person who settled there. Therefore it is possible that the GN came from a PN. It is also possible that a person could be named after a GN. The name may not even be Lehite, since it exhibits consonant clusters that resemble Jaredite names. See for example, Ripliancum and Moriancumer are the only other Book of Mormon names with the consonant cluster -nc, and both these names are exclusively Jaredite.
However, if Teancum is not Jaredite, then several Hebrew suggestions can be made. It is possible to separate the element te from the unit -ancum(-). The demonstrative m.s. pronoun, zēh in Hebrew, is dā in Aramaic and dū in Ugaritic. It may be that the Mulekites pronounced the demonstrative pronoun [dē], or even [tē], and that Teancum means “The one of Ancum.” tʾnq, “she groans, cries, he of the crying.” ʿng, “to be soft, delicate, dainty”. ʿnq, necklace, to put on a necklace.” ʿnq, Anak, the eponymous ancestor of the Anakim, pre-Israelite Canaanites. Akkadian unqu, “neck.”
