Number: 2366
Proto-Semitic: *bur-
Meaning: kind of insect
Akkadian: *bŭ̄rtu (in burt/di šamh̊at) 'caterpillar' SB [CAD b 333], būrta/i šam/nh̊at 'eine Insektenlarve' [AHw. 141]. // Known from lexical lists (= Akk. h̊arsapnu) and a very difficult passage from Vassal treaties of Asarhaddon where it appears in a substantially different form (bur-di šá-h̊i, Wiseman Treaties 579). According to von Soden, to be interpreted as 'im Brunnen ist sie üppig' (apparently analysed as būrt-iš 'in the well' + šamh̊at 3 f. sg. stative from šamāh̊u 'to flourish') which is hardly convincing even for a folk etymology (for a critique of the above analysis cf. e.g. [Borger 193]). The approach adopted in [CAD] is more attractive: "Possibly a foreign word interpreted by the ancients as a descriptive term, "fat cow"". As the Gur. parallels show, this original faunal term might have been genuine Semitic rather than foreign.
Gurage: Muh. burä, Cha. Gyt. bura, Eža bʷǝra, Enm. bũra 'insect that eats the root of the äsät' [LGur. 150, 729], Eža bǝre, Cha. bre 'insect (such as a bug or a louse that eats human excrements or // cereal)' [ibid. 150].
Notes: Cf. a number of semantically comparable forms possibly developed from this biconsonantal root: Amh. bǝrrabǝrro (birrabirro) 'butterfly' [K 882]; Arb. burām- 'tique' [Blachère 582], [Fr. I 114], [LA XII 45], Tgr. bǝram 'tick' [LH 275] (probably an Arabism); Arb. nibr- 'teigne; mouche ou autre insecte qui incommode les chameaux et dont la piqûre cause une enflure' [BK 2 1183], [Fr. IV 231], [LA V 189]; Arb. habūr- 'araignée', habbūr- 'petite fourmi' [BK 2 1380], [Fr. IV 362], [LA V 249].
