Amurrite
/ˈæm.ə.raɪt/noun
A member of an ancient Northwest Semitic-speaking people who lived in Syria and Mesopotamia during the late third and early second millennia BCE.
Did you know?The Amurrites eventually produced powerful rulers such as Hammurabi of Babylon, although “Amurrite” originally functioned as an outsider’s geographic label rather than the people’s own name.
Etymological Timeline
Late 3rd Millennium BCE
Sumerian
MAR.TU
“A name for western peoples or lands beyond Sumer and Akkad.”
Early 2nd Millennium BCE
Akkadian
Amurrū
“The Westerners; the western region or its inhabitants.”
2nd Millennium BCE
Akkadian
Amurru
“The western land and the deity associated with the western peoples.”
Biblical Hebrew
Hebrew
ʾĔmōrī
“Amorite, a member of the ancient people known in the Hebrew Bible.”
Classical Antiquity
Greek and Latin
Amorraios; Amorrhaeus
“Amorite, transmitted through Greek and Latin accounts of the ancient Near East.”
Modern English
English
Amurrite
“A scholarly English form referring to an Amorite or to the ancient Amurru-associated culture.”