Number: 2450
Proto-Semitic: *kawdan-
Meaning: mule
Akkadian: kūdanu (kūdannu) 'a type of mule' OAkk. on [CAD k 491] (extensive discussion), [AHw. 498]. The term is widely used in late periods only (NA in particu- lar, both in royal inscriptions and private documents). In earlier texts k. is quite unfrequent (in OAkk., as PN only). The meaning 'mule' is safely deduced from passages stressing k.' in- fertility (kī ša zēru ša ANS̆E.GÌR.NUN.NA laššuni 'in the same way as there is no progeny of k.' Wiseman Treaties 537). ONE WONDERS WHETHER in THE WELL-KNOWN passage from Gilgamesh .... (ibrī kūdanu ṭardu) k. really denotes a mule or rather a wild ass, a well-known synonym of swiftness in ANE poetic language. Cf. [Salonen Hyppologica 76-8].
Eblaitic: gú-da-núm /kūdanum/ = ANS̆E.EDEN [MEE 4 038] (cf. [Kreb. 45], [Civil Ebla 90]).
Ugaritic: kdnt 'mula' [DLU 211]. Highly uncertain (Hapax in the scribal exercise 5.23:8, a list of words out of context).
Aramaic: Off. kwdn 'mule' [HJ 492]. Plm. kwdn 'mule' [HJ 492] (cf. [PAT 372]).
Judaic Aramaic: kūdǝnā (pl. kūdanyān, kūdanwān) 'mule' [Ja. 617], [+++]
Syrian Aramaic: kūdanyā, kūdǝnā (pl. kūdnǝwātā) 'mulus', kūdantā 'mula' [BK 318-9], [PS 1680].
Mandaic Aramaic: kudana, kdana 'mule' [DM 203, 205].
Arabic: kawdan-, kawdaniyy- 'né d'un étalon arabe et d'une ju- ment non-arabe (cheval); métis; cheval de train; mulet; élé- phant' [BK 2 876], [LA XIII 356], [WKAS k 87].
Tigrai (Tigriñña): Cf. mäkada name of the small Abyssinian horse LT 134
Notes: A chain of borrowings (Akk. > Arm. > Arb.) suggested in [Zimmern 50] cannot be excluded but needs further argumentation (cf. [PAT 372]: "probably simply cognates"). The same is true about the supposed non-Semitic origin of Akk. kūdanu assumed in [Salonen Hyppologica 76-8] (though, admittedly, the term does not seem to be deeply rooted in Akk., both of the early syllabic attestations coming from Mari letters). [DLU 211]: Ugr., Arm., Akk., Arb.; [Brock. 318]: Syr., Arm., Akk. (the Arm. forms are treated as Akkadisms).
