Sumerian Addenda · Signs
hand
| Name | ŠU |
|---|---|
| Reads | [šu] |
| Means | hand |
| Taught in | 06 · Names that are sentences |
Where it comes from
A picture that stayed honest: forearm and fingers, still legible after two thousand years of wedge-building. Šu is the hand — and the hand is how things change owners, so the receipts’ key verb is šu … ti, “the hand made it approach”: received.
How to remember it
A hand held out, fingers spread — the wedges fan like knuckles. Everything given, taken, or signed for in the archives passes through this sign; follow the hand and you follow the goods.
In the wild
urn:nabu:cdli:p010501:reverse:5:10 ·
license: attribution.
Piece by piece:
- šu — hand
- i — the bare vowel finishing the word
The barber is a “hand-man” — a trade named by the part that does the work. The title is read in 102’s chapter 11; the receiving hand itself works in chapter 08.