ašāgu
REVIEW
Meanings:
Syrian mesquite (?)
de:German: Deutsch Prosopis farcta (?)
fr:French: Français mesquite syrien (?)
Grammar:
pos: subst.Substantive
Etymology: Inherited P. farcta can referred to in Arab. ḫarnūb, which is etym. connected with the Akk. name of the plant's fruit (ḫarūbu). Note Arab. šūk (or šōk) “thorn, spike”, which often relates to Syrian mesquite as well as other thorny plants, for instance, Arab. Shouk-ul-jamal “camelthorn”; see Böck et al. 2023, 102.
1Attestations
OB-LitOB-Lit: Old Babylonian literary texts — new attestation (not in AHw/CAD) a-ša-ag ṣērim CUSAS 32, 32c r. 11 “thornbush of the steppe”. new
Discussion
For the likely identification of the designation with Syrian mesquite (Prosopis farcta), see Böck et al. 2023, 100–104. As suggested also in ancient sources, the pods where named differently ḫarūbu, related to the Arb. terms (ḫurnūb or ḫarrūb) for the fruits of the real carob tree (note the popular name of P. farcta as “false carob”).