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THE DETERMINATIVES 55
~~nsim = ru(,(w, 'product of ,resinous trees, ointment, pastry,
salve'. As a product of plants it is distinguished from ú = sammu, the
latter being a drug; the two are employed in the same list K. 4586.
Used with gis, sim indicates a tree which produces resin, etc., as gis­
sim-li = burasu, resinous cypress, see Rm. 367. On sim, see OLZ.
J909,112.
~H.t duk, 'jar, vessel'. N ever applied to very small receptacles
as cups, saucers, etc. [The latter were determined only by the mate­
rial in their composition, as clay, bronze, copper.] dukalal_ alallu,
'a pail'. dukga = karpat sizbi, 'milk bowl'. duksig = silslsu 'ointment
bottle".
~Tgis, 'wood'; used to determine the names of trees, shrubs and
objects made of wood. gisli = burasu, cypress. gissam-el =arrallu'.
giskak=sihkatu, 'peg'. The signification of gis is extremely intri­
cate; it occurs before the names of almost every conceivable utensil and
implement into whose composition the least piece of wood could have
entered. \Veapons are almost invariably designated by gis, although
wood could not have entered extensively into their composition. (A
survival of the neolithic age.)
~ TTT~ tÍ = sammu, 'vegetable', designates almost endless varieties
of herbs, plants etc. of all botanical species. The term is used techni­
cally in medicine for 'drug', and generally for products of herbs, and
is even translated in one instance by ruJslfu, 'cosmetic', IV R. 10 b 293•
In cases where the natives were in doubt as to whether a plant
belonged to the exogenous and woody class or to the endogenous and
vegetable class, they placed both gis and tÍ before the word as gis-úgir,
"a thorn', CT. XIV 21b 18. 29~. The difference between a drug and
1. V R. 4~ e 19. Identical with sikku, V. Muss-ARNOLT, 1025 b, and LANG­
DON, PSBA. 1908, 268.
2. Vide SAK. 243.
3. CL ú in a list with zal-lu, 'lard, tallow', CT. XIV 21 col. VIII, and
K. 4185 (ibid., pl. 26).
4. The reverse order in ú-gis-~., K. 8846 obv. 17, a kind of fig.