Sumerian

[soo-meer-ee-uh n, -mer-]

adjective

of or relating to Sumer, its people, or their language.

noun

a native or inhabitant of Sumer.
a language of unknown affinities that was the language of the Sumerians and had, in the late 4th and 3rd millenniums b.c., a well-developed literature that is preserved in pictographic and cuneiform writing and represents the world's oldest extant written documents.

Origin of Sumerian

First recorded in 1870–75; Sumer + -ian

Related formspre-Su·me·ri·an, adjective, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for sumerian

Contemporary Examples of sumerian

The name Easter may, or may not, be derived from the Sumerian goddess Inanna, or Ishtar—the source of the Hebrew name Esther.
Meet Krampus, the Seriously Bad Santa
Jay Michaelson
December 5, 2014
In Sumerian culture, beer is referenced on the earliest recovered tablet.
5 Pioneering Ways to Cook with Beer
Stacey Slate
February 2, 2010
The name Eve is derived from a Sumerian pun on the word for rib.
The Truth About Genesis
Bruce Feiler
September 18, 2009

Historical Examples of sumerian

According to our Sumerian text he reigned in Erech for a hundred years.
Legends Of Babylon And Egypt
Leonard W. King
We fortunately possess an instructive Sumerian parallel to our passage.
Legends Of Babylon And Egypt
Leonard W. King
For we have now recovered some of those originals, and they are not Semitic but Sumerian.
Legends Of Babylon And Egypt
Leonard W. King
Changes in the manner of reading the Sumerian names are frequent.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1
Various
There is as yet no evidence that the Canaanites were of the Sumerian stock.
The Relations between the Laws of Babylonia and the Laws of the Hebrew Peoples
C. H. W. Johns

British Dictionary definitions for sumerian

Sumerian

noun

a member of a people who established a civilization in Sumer during the 4th millennium bc
the extinct language of this people, of no known relationship to any other language

adjective

of or relating to ancient Sumer, its inhabitants, or their language or civilization

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sumerian

Sumerian

adj.

1874, from French Sumérien (1872), from Sumer, name of a district in ancient Babylonia.