ḫabābu
3Attestations
OB-LitOB-Lit: Old Babylonian literary texts GG-stem (Grundstamm/Basic stem) ibaššī râmum elī nišī i-⸢ḫa⸣-ap-pu-up râmum li-iḫ-pu-pa-am ina ⸢ṣēria⸣ CUSAS 10, 11: 5f. SEAL “love came into being, whispering over the people. May love whisper above me”. George, CUSAS 10 p. 70, derives the word from a root *ḥbb “to love” and mentions further ref. However, all the instances of this alleged verb either can be derived from the onomatopoeic verb listed in AHw. 301 as ḫabābu “murmeln, zirpen, zwitschern” or belong to ḫapāpu, a variant of ḫepû (AHw. 321 ḫapāpu I 321 “zerschlagen”). See also ḫabību for which a meaning “murmuring, twittering” fits the context better than a meaning “love”. Finally, the variant ḫapāpu with p instead of b can be more easily explained when the verb is onomatopoeic rather than etymologically connected to *ḥbb.
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) (comm.) GG-stem (Grundstamm/Basic stem) [ú-ḫab]-ba-ab : ḫa-ba-bu : ḫa-ṣa-nu : ḫa-ba-bu : na-šá-qa Fs. Leichty, 152 r. 3 CCP “'[care]sses': 'to caress' (means) 'to hug', 'to caress' (means) 'to kiss'”. || SpTU 5, 259 r. 3. Commentary on Alu XXIII 14. new
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) ŠŠ-stem (Causative stem) ina ugārīšu na⸢dīʾū⸣te ú-šaḫ-bi-ba mê [nuḫši] JNES 78, 4: 23 RINAP “I let abundant water ripple in the fallow meadows”.