Sumerian Addenda · Signs

𒅥

eat

NameKA×GAR
Reads[gu]
Meansto eat
Taught in08 · The sign workshop

Where it comes from

KA the mouth with GAR — a ration, a portion — written inside it: KA×GAR in the sign lists’ notation. A portion in the mouth is eating: the compound reads gu7, “to eat,” the everyday verb of ration lists and proverbs alike, mid-table in both counted corpora.

How to remember it

Eat: the mouth with its portion already in. Same staging as its twin drink — only the filling differs: streams of water to drink, a packed ration to eat. Check what is in the mouth before you read it.

In the wild

SF 061, ED IIIa (ca. 2600–2500 BCE), Šuruppak (mod. Fara). CDLI P010652 via Nabu, urn:nabu:cdli:p010652 · license: attribution. Name translations are approximate by nature.

Piece by piece:

  • ga — milk
  • gu7-gu7 — eat, eat — the mouth with its portion, twice

A nursery-ish name from Šuruppak’s ancient rosters — the well-fed sibling of ga-naŋ-naŋ. Both names are read in 102’s chapter 02.

Easily confused