ABLOM

Lehite PN	1.	Place by the sea, east on the hill SHEM and east of RAMAH (CUMORAH) (Ether 9:3)

Etymology

Until possible language affinities for JAREDITE names can be determined, all suggestions for etymologies of JAREDITE names must remain more speculative than substantive.

With this caveat, perhaps the common biblical GN element ʾbl, “meadow, pasture” would not be far off the mark, possibly with a second element ʿm, “people” (RFS) or with mimation. See the biblical GNs ABEL, Abel-Shittim, Abel-maim, Abel-beth-maachah, and Abel-Meholah. Notice especially the Ugaritic GN qrt ablm (Fisher, Ras ShamraParallels, 2:254–255), meaning possibly “city of the meadows.” From this root Reynolds suggested “green meadows” (Commentary VI, 41).

Less likely is an etymology from HEBREW ʾbl, “mourning,” such as in Abel-Mizraim (Genesis 50:11), because the HEBREW is a segholate kitl form and would not exhibit the a vowel of ABLOM unless there were a vowel between the b and the l.

Other remote possibilities might include Akkadian PN hablum, a king of Uruk (biblical Erech), Dynasty 4 (RFS); HEBREW ʿbr, “pass over” (with doubtful but plausible interchange of l and r) and its noun ʿabārîm, “passages; regions beyond,” and the cognate in Akkadian ebēru, ebrum, “beyond, across” (RFS); compare with the biblical PN Eber (JAT). Notice the East Semitic verb wabālum, “to carry, bring,” and the noun abullum, “gate” (JAT).