NEAS
| Lehite noun | 1. | Food plant listed along with SHEUM and seeds of corn, barley, wheat, and various unspecified fruits (Mosiah 9:9) |
Etymology
Perhaps a JAREDITE carryover, like SHEUM, which see. Possibly composed with Old Akkadian ás, “resin, seed, cereal, emmer-wheat,” from Akkadian áš, aś, ás, áz, áṣ (úÁŠ/ZÍZ, ZĪZU II) “resin; emmer-wheat, cereal-food; dry-measure of 3 BAN”[1] – used, for example, in úÁŠ.DUG.GA “opium poppy,” in the name of the Sumerian grain-goddess, Ashnan (M. Civil), asnan,[2] and in A.ŠA, aš-šum “field” (= GÁN).[3]
Cf. Old & Late Babylonian nušû, nešu, a plant of some sort (PYH).[4]
Cf. also Akkadian eša (A.TIR) as the name of “an unidentified cereal” in cuneiform texts.[5]
PYH suggests that it might have been borrowed into Lehite from a native, indigenous vocabel, perhaps along the lines of quinoa, amaranth, jocote (mombin), manioc (cassava),[6] chile, or other grains or food plants native to the Americas and unknown to Joseph Smith.
Benjamin Urrutia suggested nys “anise,” but failed to indicate the source language.[7] However, he may have intended Demotic Зmys “anise; dill”[8] > Copt. emise, amici; Greek anēthon, anison > Latin anisum.[9]
Hugh Nibley long ago argued that “the fact that Nephite weights and measures bear Jaredite names indicates long cultural overlap” with the NEPHITES or people of ZARAHEMLA.[10]
See SHEUM.
Cf. Book of Mormon NEUM
See also Neas Variants
Variants
Deseret Alphabet: 𐐤𐐀𐐈𐐞 (niːæz)
Notes
- ↑ R. Borger, Assyrisch-babylonische Zeichenlexikon, 339 (p. 141), noting also that ÁŠ(ZIZ)-AN-NA = kunāšu “emmer”; cf. von Soden, AHw, 506 (cf. also Deimel, ŠL, 339.1,10,22,38; CAD, “A,” I/II:234a).
- ↑ Black, George, and Postgate, Concise Dictionary of Akkadian, 28; CAD, “A,” I/II:450-452.
- ↑ Von Soden, AHw, I:85 mB/mA ašû IV “arable land?”; Ellermeier, Sumerisches Glossar, I/1, Sumerisches Lautwerte, 1:22; 2:607.
- ↑ Von Soden, AHw, II:806; CAD, “N,” 11, part II:355.
- ↑ Owen & Young, JCS, 23/4 (1971):98, texts 6:4,6 “eša-flour”; Borger, ML, 839.
- ↑ Manioc was recently discovered at Ceren, El Salvador, to be dated 1400 years ago to the time of a massive volcanic eruption (www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070820122541.htm , and www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090616133940.htm ).
- ↑ J. L. Sorenson, 1980 letter.
- ↑ Černý, Coptic Etym. 35; Westendorf, KHw, 36.
- ↑ Černý, Coptic Etym. 35; Westendorf, KHw, 36.
- ↑ Nibley, Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites (1952) = Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, V (FARMS/Deseret, 1988):246.
Bibliography
Black, J., A. George, and N. Postgate, eds. A Concise Dictionary of Akkadian. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2000.
Borger, Rykle. Mespotamisches Zeichenlexikon, AOAT 305. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag, 2004.
CAD – Chicago Assyrian Dictionary = Assyrian Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the Univ. of Chicago. Chicago: Oriental Institute/Glückstadt: J. J. Augustin, 1956-2010.
Deimel, Anton. Šumerisches Lexikon, 6 vols. Rome: PBI, 1928.
Ellermeier, Friedrich. Sumerisches Glossar, I/1: Sumerische Lautwerte, 1 & 2. Göttingen: F. Ellermeier, 1979-1980.
Nibley, Hugh W. Lehi in the Desert and the World of the Jaredites, 1st ed. (1952) = Collected Works of Hugh Nibley V. Provo: FARMS/SLC: Deseret Book, 1988.
Owen, David I., and Gordon D. Young. “Ur III Texts in the Zion Research Library, Boston,” Journal of Cuneiform Studies, 23/4 (1971):95-115.
von Soden, Wolfram. Akkadisches Handwörterbuch, 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1965-1981. AHw
