Cuneiform Sign Kab

Its reading changes with the language and word around it.

Among its Sumerian readings are one for “left” and another for the verb “to test.” Lexical lists also associate it with entries for a tree and a nose-rope. In Akkadian writing, it can stand for the Sumerian word for “left” or carry the sound values kab and kap.

The sign does not translate by itself. Check the language and neighboring signs before choosing an English meaning.

Where does cuneiform sign kab come from?

Its surviving records reach back to Uruk III.

Uruk III was a late-fourth-millennium phase in the Mesopotamian city of Uruk. An administrative tablet from ca. 3200–3000 BCE records NAM₂ KAB, a scholarly transcription, among beer-allocation entries. A separate word-list tablet from Ebla records kab ca. 2350–2250 BCE.

Early cuneiform served practical record keeping for goods, then expanded into many kinds of writing. The beer allocation places KAB in that working scribal setting.

Why does 𒆏 look different in fonts?

A font can choose a different historical style.

Unicode identifies an abstract sign rather than prescribing one clay-era drawing. A Neo-Assyrian-style font and a more archaic-looking font may arrange the wedges differently while encoding the same sign. If a box appears, your font does not provide a usable glyph for it.