cuneiform Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 ed.)
... . The characters of wedge-shaped components in which ancient Accadian, Persian, and other inscriptions were...
cuneiform Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (2 ed.)
... [from the Latin cuneus , ‘wedge’] The wedge-shaped characters used in the ancient writing systems of Mesopotamia, Persia, and Ugarit, which survive mainly impressed upon clay ...
cuneiform Reference library
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (3 rev. ed.)
...1; Münster, 1988). G. R. Driver , Semitic Writing: From Pictograph to Alphabet (Schweich Lectures for 1944; 1948; 3rd edn. by S. A. Hopkins , 1976), 1–77; C. B. F. Walker , Cuneiform [1987], repr. in J. T. Hooker and others, Reading the Past: Ancient Writing from Cuneiform to the Alphabet [1990], 15–73. M. Van De Mieroop , Cuneiform Texts and the Writing of History ...
cuneiform Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of the Classical World
... is wedge‐shaped writing by impressing the triangular cross‐section of a reed upon clay. The script uses more than 500 signs to write syllables, logograms, determinatives, etc., each sign having various values. It was gradually replaced by alphabetic...
cuneiform Quick reference
World Encyclopedia
... System of writing developed in Mesopotamia by c .3000 bc . It consists of wedge-shaped strokes, derived from writing on soft clay with a triangular stylus as a ‘pen’. Cuneiform developed from pictograms. The pictograms came to serve as an ‘ alphabet ’, eventually consisting of more than 500 characters. Most stood for words, but there were also some that stood for syllables or...
Cuneiform Reference library
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (19 ed.)
... A name for the writing of various languages of ancient Mesopotamia and Persia, which was made up of wedge-shaped impressions, representing letters, made on soft clay; the characters are also called arrow-headed (Latin, cuneus , ‘wedge’). Cuneiform script was used from c. 3800 bc until the early years of the Christian era. The first to decipher the letters was the German philologist Georg Friedrich Grotefend in 1802...
cuneiform Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (2 ed.)
... [De] The term used to describe early writing in the Middle East (Sumerian, Akkadian and related languages) in which wedge‐shaped impressions are left on a clay tablet. It was used from the 3rd through to the 1st millennia bc and is thought to have derived from older Sumerian pictographic...
cuneiform Quick reference
A Dictionary of the Bible (2 ed.)
... An early kind of writing developed in * Mesopotamia during the height of Sumerian power ( c.2100–2000 bce ) and impressed on tablets of clay. It used stereotyped pictures (‘pictographic’), but from representing things and actions, it later represented sounds and concepts. The symbols were wedge‐shaped marks. The earliest texts were aides‐memoire for scribes working on accounts and were practical, but later there were religious items and narratives which had existed before they were written down. The tablets from Tell el‐ * Amarna consisting of...
cuneiform Quick reference
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics (3 ed.)
... Form of writing first developed for Sumerian from the beginning of the 3rd millennium bc ; later adapted to Akkadian (from the second half of the 3rd millennium) and later still to other languages of the ancient Near East, including Elamite , Hittite , and Old Persian . Last used in the 1st century ad . The name means ‘wedge‐shaped’, the signs being formed by patterns of triangular marks normally impressed with the flat tip of a stylus in clay. The signs were used in various ways, often representing words as wholes and often syllables; they...
cuneiform (‘wedge-shaped’) Reference library
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature (3 ed.)
... (‘wedge-shaped’) A form of writing made by pressing the triangular cross-section of a reed on to wet clay. Developed from pictograms, it was first used for Sumerian (the earliest-known language of ancient Mesopotamia) in the fourth millennium bc and subsequently adopted for later languages, from Akkadian onwards, from about 3000 bc to the first century ad . The script has more than 500 signs, which can represent whole words or syllables according to need. It was gradually replaced by alphabetic...
Cuneiform Reference library
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East
...a, i, or u—that is, 'a, 'i, and 'u. Formally this writing is cuneiform because the components (one-five) of the individual signs are indeed wedges incised or impressed on wet clay. As a system, however, Ugaritic cuneiform has its closest cognates in the Egyptian one-consonant signs and in various consonantal writing systems of Syria and Palestine. The Ugaritic variety of cuneiform did not survive the invasions of the Sea Peoples in the thirteenth century bce . The origin of Old Persian cuneiform is still debated. It was Darius I ( 521–486 bce ) or one of his...
cuneiform Reference library
Stephanie Mary Dalley
The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4 ed.)
... is wedge-shaped writing thought to have developed from impressions of clay tokens and incised pictograms by impressing the triangular cross-section of a reed upon clay. First used for Sumerian , it was adopted and adapted for proto-Elamite, Akkadian , Hurrian, Hittite, Urartian ( see urartu ), Elamite , Old Persian , and alphabetic Ugaritic languages between c. 3000 bc and c. ad 50 , some adaptations having far fewer signs and different sign-forms. The script in its Mesopotamian usages employs more than 500 signs to write syllables,...
Cuneiform Reference library
International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (2 ed.)
...In Societies and languages of the ancient Near East: Studies in honour of I. M. Diakonoff , edited by M. A. Dandamayev et al., pp. 42–61. Warminster, England: Aris and Phillips. Reiner, Erica . 1973. How we read cuneiform texts . Journal of Cuneiform Studies 25.3–58. Walker, Christopher B. F. 1987. Reading the past: Cuneiform . London: British Museum. Miguel...
cuneiform Reference library
Garner’s Modern English Usage (4 ed.)
... (= [1] wedge-shaped; [2] written in wedge-shaped characters; or [3] the wedge-shaped characters themselves) is pronounced in four distinct syllables ( / kyoo -nee-ә-form/ or /kyoo- nee -ә-form/ ), not in three ( / kyoo -nә-form/ ). Probably because of the mispronunciation, the word is occasionally misspelled ✳cuniform —e.g.: “His price: Reportedly between $4.5 million and $7 million, depending on how the Sumerian cuniform [read cuneiform ] in the contract translates into English.” Jim Slotek , “Ace Ventura: Stinking Rich,” Toronto Sun , 22 Mar....
intermediate cuneiform Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine (3 ed.)
...cuneiform The middle of three cuneiform bones in the tarsus (ankle bone). The intermediate cuneiform articulates anteriorly with the second digit and posteriorly with the navicular...
lateral cuneiform Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine (3 ed.)
...cuneiform One of three cuneiform bones in the tarsus (ankle bone). It articulates with the third...
medial cuneiform Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine (3 ed.)
...cuneiform A bone of the tarsus immediately behind the hallux in the...
cuneiform bones Quick reference
Concise Medical Dictionary (10 ed.)
... bones three bones in the tarsus – the lateral (external), intermediate (middle), and medial (internal) cuneiform bones – that articulate respectively with the first, second, and third metatarsal bones in front. All three bones articulate with the navicular bone...
cuneiform bones Quick reference
The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine (3 ed.)
... bones Three bones in the tarsus that articulate with the navicular bone posteriorly, and the first, second, and third metatarsals...
cuneiform bones pl. n. Quick reference
A Dictionary of Nursing (7 ed.)
...cuneiform bones [ kew -ni-form] pl. n. three bones in the tarsus that articulate with the first, second, and third metatarsal bones in front. All three bones articulate with the navicular bone behind....
