cuneiform meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

cuneiform

adj

UK /ˈkjuː.nɪ.fɔːm/ · US /kjuˈni.ə.fɔɹm/

Etymology From French cunéiforme or New Latin cuneifōrmis, from Classical Latin cuneus (“wedge”) + fōrma.

Having the form of a wedge; wedge-shaped, especially with a tapered end.

About midway across the larger log a cuneiform notch or cut about six inches deep was made.1889, John Napoleon Brinton Hewitt, “New Fire Among the Iroquois”, in American Anthropologist, volume 2, page 319:
The cuneiform tendon is always sharply defined when the hock is flexed by the action of the muscle.1936, W. Frank Calderon, Animal Painting and Anatomy, page 297:

1 more example

The cuneiform leaf is not the characteristic heart-shaped early form (O. and P., p. 241).1952, Aileen Fox, Roman Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum): Excavations in the War-damaged Areas, 1945-1947, page 69:

Written in the cuneiform writing system.

There, too, it was originally the vulgar script in contrast with the official cuneiform script employed for all official documents, compacts, etc.1911, Alvin Sylvester Zerbe, The Antiquity of Hebrew Writing and Literature, page 182:
The text is inscribed on a clay tablet of a very unusual format. The only other known mathematical cuneiform text on a clay tablet of a similar format is also the only previously known Kassite (and therefore post-Old-Babylonian) mathematical cuneiform text.2000, Jöran Friberg, A Remarkable Collection of Babylonian Mathematical Texts, page ix:

Synonyms: cuneal, cuneiform bone, wedgelike, wedge-shaped, wedgy
Derived terms: cuneiformlike, cuneiformly, ectocuneiform, entocuneiform, intercuneiform, mesocuneiform, noncuneiform, precuneiform, protocuneiform

cuneiform

noun

Etymology From French cunéiforme or New Latin cuneifōrmis, from Classical Latin cuneus (“wedge”) + fōrma.

An ancient Mesopotamian writing system, adapted within several language families, originating as pictograms in Sumer around the 30th century BCE, evolving into more abstract and characteristic wedge shapes formed by a blunt reed stylus on clayen tablets.

Anatomy, Medicine, Sciences A wedge-shaped bone, especially a cuneiform bone.

Derived terms: cuneiformist
Related terms: Akkadian, Accadian, Old Persian, Ugaritic