laʾbu

Borger 1975, 72: in BMS 12: 51 cit. CAD L 35 read la-aʾ-bu-in-n[i] instead of la-aʾ-bu ta-a-d[ir?-tu?].

Contrary to the view that the word denotes a specific medical term relating to a skin condition in CAD L 34f. laʾbu 1, the attestation Sakikkû IV 21 (ardat-lilî laʾbi; cf. also further examples from therapeutic contexts in Stol 2007, 12), shows that, even outside lexical lists of synonyms, it could function as a kind of attribute (adj.) indicating a potentially recurrent and/or contagious (note the tentative meaning of laʾābu “to bother”) fever (ummu la/iʾbu). Stol 2007 distinguishes the following phenomena: 1. laʾbu = adj. “contagious; contagious substance (n.)”, 2. laʾbu (see adj.; rarely also liʾbu) = a skin condition or contagious skin disease(?), 3. liʾbu = a high fever with the subtype 4. liʾbu/i (ša) šadî = a kind of tertian fever, perhaps similar to a mild form of malaria = diʾu, which may be a Sumerian lw. derived from the logogram for liʾbu/laʾbu, DIḪ(DUB). In the case of ummu liʾbu (which always occur in the same case), we can assume an appositive use of liʾbu, which is likely to be a noun in its own right, but in these instances is not in the genitive case.