Number: 209
Proto-Semitic: *par(a)ʔ-
Meaning: 'onager, wild ass'
Akkadian: parû 'Onager, Maultier' OB on [AHw. 837]. The meaning 'mule' is ascribed by von Soden to almost all the attestations listed in AHw. One wonders for what reason an exception is made for ARM 1 132:5 (cf. the transation 'mulets' in the edition and [Durand 1997 338]). See further [Salonen Hip- pologica 74-5]. The form paraḫu 'ein Wildesel' [AHw. 827] is known from the right column of Malku ([pa]-ra-ḫu = a-ga-lum, MSL 8/2 74.41) being, with all likelyhood, a WS (loan)word.
Ugaritic: pri
Hebrew: pärä(ʔ) 'wild ass' [KB 961] (with an orthographic variant pärä(h) in Jr 2.24), pB. [Ja. 1213]. A widely used poetic term; the most archaic attestation might be Gn 16.12 where the enigmatic expression pärä(ʔ) ʔādām is used about Ismael (cf. also Jb 11.12, for which see [Pope 83]). Of interest is the proverbial saying Jb 6.5 (hăyinhaḳ pärä(ʔ) ʕălē däšä(ʔ) // ʔim yigʕǟ šōr ʕal-bǝlīlō 'Does p. bray over the grass? Does the ox low over his fodder?') where p. clearly replaces the usual term for the domestic ass (ḥămōr). Cf. the translation 'Does the ass bray over his grass?' in [Pope 48] and contrast Jb 39.5ff. where p. is paralleled by rēm 'wild bull'. Outside the corpus of the Hebrew Bible p. is attested in Sir 13.19 (mʔkl ʔry prʔy mdbr 'a lion's food are the donkeys of the steppe').
Arabic: faraʔ-
Epigraphic South Arabian: frʔ
Notes: Cf. Amh. furro 'pulmonary disease afflicting equines (a kind of cold)' [K 2276], furr 'a pulmonary disease affecting mules and donkeys' [ibid.]. [Fron. 293]: *parʔ- 'onagro' (Arb., Hbr., Akk.); [Salonen Hippologica 74-5], [AHw. 837], [KB 961], [Firmage 1152]: Hbr., Akk., Arb.; [Sima 60]: Sab., Akk., Hbr., Arb. (detailed zoological discussion).
