dabû

From SAD D: Already Salonen 1959–60, 158 connected Akk. dabû with Egyptian db(j) “hippopotamus”. This interpretation is elaborated by Militarev/Kogan 2005, 95 who think that Sem. dabû/dabbu is related to Egyptian db(j) “hippopotamus”, the Afrasian etymon having the basic mng. “large animal”. Civil 1998, 11f., not quoting Salonen, assumed that the Sum. column of the equation dam/dím-šaḫ = da-bu-ú in Ḫḫ XIV 156f. (MSL 8/2) shows an Egypt. lw. for the crocodile (cf. Arab. timsāh), equated by the scribe with another river animal, the hippopotamus; therefore, according to him, we should distinguish two homophones in Akk., dabû “bear” and dabû “hippopotamus”. However, the position of the entry in Ḫḫ, between hare and pig, makes the identification of dam/dím-šaḫ as “crocodile” doutbtful. Moreover, it would be surprising if the scribe translated a foreign animal by another word foreign to Akk. The right column of Ḫḫ XIV either contains the normal Akk. correspondances of the Sum. words in the left column (including loans from Sum., Akkadianized by attaching the case ending), or literal translations of the Sum. phrases like pīl šadî “elephant of the mountain/east” Ḫḫ XIV 54 for Sum. am-si kur-ra. Finally, besides living in the water, crocodile and hippopotamus do not resemble each other. Therefore, the most likely interpretation is still that of Landsberger 1934, 13 and 82: dam/dím-šaḫ means “similar to a pig” (cf. muš-dam/dím- “similar to a snake” for the “gecko” Ḫḫ XIV 372), found in this position of the list because the šaḫ “pig” section follows. According to Landsberger, nose and skin of bear and pig look similar. This interpretation is also favored by the Practical Vocabulary from Assur (vgl. MSL 8/2, 68), in which az “bear” in l. 372 is followed by dam-šaḫ in l. 373. This means that there is only a single word dabû “bear” in the Akk. lexicon.