Number: 2336
Proto-Semitic: *ʔVnar- ~ *ʔVran-
Meaning: a small predatory mammal
Akkadian: mīrānu (mūrānu) 'young dog, puppy; cub of a wild animal' OAkk. on [CAD m2 105], [AHw. 658]. // Forms in -ū- are rarer than those in -ī- (as rightly observed in [AHw.], they are present only in later texts) and may be secondary. The main meaning of m. being 'young dog', it is only rarely applied to wild animals (lion, hyaena). Found almost exclusively in literary texts (the earliest occurrence is in the OAkk. incantation MAD 3 182: aṣbassu ... kī me-ra-ni-im ina pērtišu 'I seized him ... by its hair like a puppy') and lexical lists (= Sum. UR.TUR). The only exception seems to be the famous passage dealing with the sacrifice of a puppy in ARM 2 37:8, 10: mērānam u h̊azzam iššûnimma bēlī aplah̊ma mērānam u h̊assam ul addin 'they brought to me a puppy and a goat; I was afraid of my lord and did not permit the puppy and the goat' (cf. [Durand III 443]). Interestingly enough, in a similar text recently edited in [Charpin 185-] one finds me-ra-am instead of me-ra-nam (according to the editor, either a scribal error or a different lexeme meaning 'calf').
Ugaritic: ʔinr 'can, perro' [DLU 40], also a metathetic form ʔirn 'cachorro de perro, gozquejo' [ibid. 50]. // The meaning 'dog' for ʔinr is obvious in both passages where it is found: 1.16 I 2 (kklb bbtk nʕtḳ // kʔinr ʔap h̊štk 'like a dog which became old in your house // like a hound at the entrance of your portico' according to [Del Olmo Mitos 309]) and 1.114.13 (lm k!lb tʕdbn nšb // lʔinr tʕdbn ktp 'for a dog they prepare a cut of meat (?) // for a hound they prepare the shoulder'). It seems less certain for ʔirn, a hapax in the divinatory text 1.103+.33: pnh pn ʔirn 'his face is the face of a dog (?)'.
Amharic: anär 'wildcat (Viverra genotta)' [K 1211].
Notes: In Arb. cf. ʔirān-, miʔrān- 'repaire d'une bête feroce' [BK 1 27], [Fr. I 29], [LA XIII 14] as well as ʔrn 'mordre, saisir avec les dents' [BK 1 27], [Fr. I 29]. // The PS reconstruction is not very solid as it presupposes at the same time (1) metathetic developments in more than one language, (2) a secondary morphological formation in Akk. (*mi/u-ʔrān-), quite uncommon for animal nouns, (3) a relatively unusual semantic development in Amh. None of these objections is fatal, however. Thus, metathesis is not unfrequent in animal names as well as in roots with two sonorants (see Introduction). // In Akk., a rare non-prefixal by-form ú-ra-nu is attested (equated with mīrānu in Malku V 43, but probably not a genuine Akk. term it is typical of the words found in this word-list). // Ugr. ʔinr was carefully studied in [Aartun] where most of the above quoted Sem. parallels are listed and discussed (Ugr., Amh., Akk., Arb.).
