Sumerian Addenda · Signs
lady
| Name | NIN |
|---|---|
| Reads | [nin] |
| Means | lady, queen, mistress |
| Taught in | 05 · A dedication, whole |
Where it comes from
The classic female counterpart to EN and LUGAL: nin is lady, queen, mistress. It opens goddess names and queenly titles the way lugal opens kingly ones — Ninhursag, Ninlil, Ninazu, the great ladies of the pantheon.
How to remember it
The lady of the house wears the composed sign: a woman’s title folded into seven tidy wedges. Meet nin- at the front of a name and bow — a goddess or a queen is being introduced.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p010068 ·
license: attribution. Name translations are approximate by
nature.
Piece by piece:
- nin — the lady
- a-zu — knows the water/seed: the same trusting pattern as Diŋir-azu
A name — and a god Ninazu is well known in the pantheon besides. The name is read in 102’s chapter 05.