abru I

Note the different interpretations of abru in earlier editions as either “strong” (BWL, followed by AHw. and in part CAD) or “brushwood” (partly in CAD and adopted in Földi 2022; cf. alternatively Streck 2023, 229 “a wall, a woodpile(?)”). The interpretation as “brushwood” seems unlikely as this would require a genitive cstr. and the expression dūru ab-ru represents formally a noun with an attribute (adj.) as in the BWL translation “a strong wall.” On the other hand, the interpretation of abru as “strong,” derived from ḫabāru (a by-form of kabāru “thick, strong, solid”, see AHw 7 s.v. abru I) is likewise problematic; cf. the note in CAD A/1, 63 s.v. abru. The only formally apt verb would be abāru III “to embrace” (sparsely attested in G-stem but frequently in D-stem, thus s.v. ubburu in CAD with the mng. “to bind; surround; (D) accuse”) but no adj. of this verb has been identified so far. Although one would expect a rather active word here, the meaning of abru must be passive, thus the tentative translation “bound(?)” here. Note further the use of the same verb abāru (in D-stem) in the following line 41.

Ur III Akkadian áb-ru-um (CAD abru E), referring to an animal pen, appears to be the nominalized form (“enclosure”).