šagbānu
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Variant: sagbānu, sagbannu
Meanings:
(a skin affliction)
de:German: Deutsch (eine Hauterkrankung)
fr:French: Français (une affection cutanée)
Distribution: OB-LitOB-Lit: Old Babylonian literary texts, SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE)
Grammar:
pos: subst.Substantivesuffix: -ānSuffix -ān
Etymology: Borrowed ＜ Sum.Sumerian sag-ba-ná (?) Since the only seemingly similar Sumerian form of the word is attested as Erimḫuš in a list that is difficult to decipher, its classification as a loanword from Sumerian sag-ba-ná remains uncertain. Cf. perhaps the Aramaic šgb “veil,” see Tal 2000, 871. Also worth noting is the term šugābu, possibly a veil or curtain, which is discussed in Watson 2024, and which is thought to be derived from a still-unknown Akkadian (or Assyrian) verb šagābu meaning “to cover, to protect.” Even if “to protect” is not necessarily the term one would associate with a skin disease, the term “to cover” may not be so far-fetched after all.
1Attestations
SBSB: Standard Babylonian (ca. 1000–0 BCE) — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) [... siḫerta]šu? ṣabit u ṣalim šag-ba-ni (|| ša[g]-⸢ba-nu ?⸣) š[umšu] Sakikkû XXXIII 64 “[if (a lesion?) ... all of(?)] it is taken over (lit.: seized) and black – š. [is its] n[ame]”. Restorations according to the parallel CTN 4, 116 o. 1; note the spelling ša-ga-ba-⸢na?*⸣ in ib. o. 4. new