What 𒍮 means
It can mean “to revolve” or “to be in labor”; context decides.
Texts attest zum from Early Dynastic IIIb, an early Mesopotamian period, through the Hellenistic period; examples also appear in Old Akkadian, Old Babylonian and Neo-Babylonian records. Akkadian, another ancient Mesopotamian language, has the related verb hiālu, “to be in labor.”
Cuneiform began as record-keeping for goods and services, then developed into a writing system whose signs could represent words or syllables. ZUM belongs to that long scribal tradition, rather than being a one-off invented mark.
Why does cuneiform look different in another font?
Fonts can draw the same encoded sign in different period styles.
Cuneiform sign lists classify forms by period and style. A font may show an Old Babylonian, Ur III (Third Dynasty of Ur), or Neo-Assyrian form, so the same sign can look unlike a tablet photograph or another font. For historical work, choose a font that reflects the period you are reading.
The sign list records ZUMKASKAL, ZUMTUG₂, ZUM.SI and ZUMLAGAB as compounds: sign combinations treated as units. In this notation, marks a compound, while a dot separates signs.
Specialized and opaque without context; add a transliteration when writing for someone who does not read cuneiform.
The sign does not always mean “to revolve”; check the language and surrounding signs.
Who writes 𒍮
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Related characters
4
Questions people ask
1Why is 𒍮 a blank box?
The font lacks a glyph for this sign. Try a font with cuneiform coverage or open a character viewer; the text may still contain the correct character.
More like this
10
How to type or find 𒍮
- Also called
- ZUM · zum · cuneiform zum
- Search it as
- zum cuneiform · sumerian zum · 𒍮 meaning
- Shows up in
- Anything that takes text · its shape is whatever your font draws
𒍮\1236ECodes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.