Hurrian

Meanings

1. A member of an ancient people who lived in northern Mesopotamia and created a powerful kingdom called Mitanni in the 16th-13th century BC.

1. Of or pertaining to the Hurrians or their language or culture.

1. The language of Hurrians, neither Indo-European nor Semitic, whose only known relative is Urartian.

Etymology

From Hurrian 𒄷𒌨𒊑 (Ḫu-ur-ri). Falkenstein and Kramer had once connected it to Sumerian 𒄯𒊒𒌝 (ḫur-ru-um /⁠ḫurrum⁠/, “a mountain cave, cavern”) when it was misidentified as a proper name of a mountain rather than a generic term; see the epic Lugalbanda in the Mountain Cave.