ni-na-a

Updated: June 17, 2025

The compound ideogram expressing the deity signifies 'house of the fish. The word 'house' in Semitic parlance is figuratively extended to convey the idea of 'possessing or harboring. Applied to a settlement, the ideogram would be the equivalent of our 'Fishtown. It is with this same ideogram that the famous capitol of Assyria, Nineveh, is written in the cuneiform texts, and since the phonetic reading for the city, Ni-na-a, also occurs, it is only legitimate to conclude that the latter is the correct reading for the deity as well.

Morris Jastrow - The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria