Etymology

Assyria

As·syr·ia
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Today it means: An ancient Semitic Akkadian kingdom and at times an empire, extant from the mid-23rd century BCE to 608 BCE and centred on the Upper Tigris river in northern Mesopotamia (present day northern Iraq, but at its maximum extent including parts of modern Iran, Syria, Israel, Palestine and Egypt). Full definition →

Latin Assyria ← Ancient Greek Ἀσσῠρίᾱ (Assŭríā) ← Akkadian 𒀾𒋗𒊏𒅀 (Aššūrāyu)
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The story

  1. Akkadian𒀸𒋩𒆠 (Aššūr)
  2. Akkadian𒀾𒋗𒊏𒅀 (Aššūrāyu)
  3. Ancient GreekἈσσῠρίᾱ (Assŭríā)
  4. LatinAssyria
  5. English todayAssyria

Learned borrowing from Latin Assyria, from Ancient Greek Ἀσσυρία (Assuría), from Akkadian 𒀾𒋗𒊏𒅀 (Aššūrāyu), from 𒀸𒋩𒆠 (Aššūr, “Assur”), its original capital. Doublet of Syria.

Words from the same roots

Akkadian𒀾𒋗𒊏𒅀 all →

Syria

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.