Akkadian Addenda · Signs

kid

Name	MASZ₂
Reads	[maš]
Means	the kid goat — and the interest on a loan: growth measured the herdsman's way
Taught in	17 · Silver changes hands

Where it comes from

The kid goat (stated) — and, by the oldest arithmetic there is, the interest on a loan: a herd grows by births, so the scribes named a loan’s growth after the newborn animal. Silver bears shekels the way goats bear kids.

How to remember it

The kid in the ledger: every mina out on loan is a nanny goat, and MAŠ₂ counts what she bears. Where this sign appears, money is breeding.

In the wild

𒆬 𒌓 𒅇 𒈧 𒁉KASPAM u MAŠ₂-BI"the silver and its interest" — the repayment clause of a Sippar loan

An Old Babylonian loan (PBS 8/2, 195), obverse 10. urn:nabu:cdli:p257793:obverse:10 · license: attribution.

Akkadian reading taught in 103’s chapter 17.