Etymology

Today it means: The chronolect of the Aramaic language (mid-8th century–late 4th century BCE), intermediate between Old Aramaic and Middle Aramaic, that was used as a language of public life and administration in the late Neo-Assyrian Empire (from the reign of King Tiglath-Pileser III [r. 745–727 BCE] onward), the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and the Achaemenid Empire, until the latter’s conquest by Alexander the Great in 330 BCE. Full definition →