TEANCUM

Lehite PN	1.	1. Soldier, ca. 67 BC (Alma 50:35 (x2); 51:29, 31 (x2), 32, 33, 34; 52:1, 2, 5, 15 (x2), 16, 17, 19, 22 (x2), 23 (x3), 24, 26, 27; 53:3; 61:15, 18, 21; 62:3, 13, 32 (x2), 34, 35, 36 (x2), 37)
Lehite GN	2.	City, 4th c. AD (Mormon 4:3 (x2), 6, 7 (x2), 14)

Etymology

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; both of these names are exclusively JAREDITE. Further, if the names were HEBREW in origin, the n sound would be assimilated to the sound of the following consonant; thus -nc- would become -cc- or -c-.

However, if TEANCUM is not a uniformly JAREDITE name, then several suggestions for the derivation of the name from Hebrew can be made. If it is possible to separate the element te- of the PN TEANCUM from the element -ancum (one may note that the demonstrative m.s. pronoun in Hebrew is zēh in Hebrew, dā in Aramaic and dū in Ugaritic) and if the Mulekites pronounced that demonstrative pronoun /dē/, or even /tē/, the name would then mean, “The one of/from Ancum,” from the hypothetical Book of Mormon name *Ancum.

It would be tempting to but difficult to derive *ancum from the biblical Hebrew ʿănāq (Anak in the King James Bible). The vowel between the n and the q is long and would not elide even in the plural, ʿănāqîm.

Cf. Book of Mormon TEOMNER, CUMORAH, et al.

Variants

Deseret Alphabet: 𐐓𐐀𐐈𐐤𐐗𐐊𐐣 (tiːænkʌm)

Notes

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