In his
well-researched paper, The
Preposterous Book of Mormon: A Singular Advantage, Robert F. Smith (who is very active on Quora
answering LDS-related questions) offered the following etymology for “Irreantum”
in 1 Nephi 17:5:
Irreantum, “Many Waters” (1 Nephi 17:5), likely the
Egyptian pronunciation of ’IrЗnt,
’Irnt [46] the Egyptian
transliteration for the Orontes, the largest river in Syria. This Egyptian
spelling had the water determinative mw
at the close, [47] which sometimes represents -um, [48] as well as -m in
Egyptian group writing, [49] and may thus very well have been vocalized
something like *ʼirantum. [50] The
name originates in Iranic haeravanta
“that of grandeur, greatness,” which is applied to the names of mountains, and
to other rivers, as well as to some Armenian kings, and even to the capital
city of Armenia, Yeravan (Erewan). [51] In the Avestan (Sassanid)
form Arvand, it is another name for
the Tigris River and for the confluence of the Tigris & Euphrates Rivers
(otherwise known as the Shatt al-Arab
waterway) which opens into the Persian Gulf. [52]
Notes for the Above:
47 E. A. W. Budge, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary, 73, 961a, citing A. Mariette, Abydos: description de fouilles, II
(Paris, 1880), 4, 15 (temples of Seti & Ramses II); and Annales du Service des Antiquités de
l’Égypte, 4:129 (stele of Amenothis II, Karnak). Fully pЗ mw n irnt “the waters of the Orontes.”
48 Egyptian šmw “summer” > Coptic šōm;
Eg. ym > Copt. eiom; Eg. pЗ-ym “Fayyum” > Copt. fiom.
This is true in other ways as well, Eg. ʼItmw
> Copt. Atoum; Eg. ˁhmw > Copt. ahoum.
49 Alan Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar, 3rd ed., §60, and Sign List N(35), citing the
Canaanite GN Ynˁm “Yenoam” in
Egyptian transliteration.
50 Cf. James Hoch, Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third
Intermediate Period, §§52, 304; Table 8, and page 508 (mu3).
51 King Yervand IV was the last king of the Orontid
Dynasty (Wikipedia.org, online at
https://uc.99kk.eu.org/0/?url=bmF2aXJFL2lraXcvZ3JvLmFpZGVwaWtpdy5tLm5lLy9BMyVwdHRo
).
52 Avestan (Sassanid) arvand is the translation of Old Persian tigra “sharp; roaring” (Rozbeh Parsapoor, Arvand River, 2008, Persian Gulf Studies Center, online at
http://www.persiangulfstudies.com/en/ index.asp?p=pages&ID=174 ), which is
the source of the name for the great Tigris River.
