Eblaite

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. Belonging to or characteristic of the ancient Syrian city of Ebla and its culture ; the extinct Semitic language once spoken and written in that city
2. Of or relating to the ancient Syrian city-state of Ebla ; the long-dead Semitic tongue used by its inhabitants and recorded in cuneiform
3. Describing the people, culture or artifacts of ancient Ebla in northern Syria ; the Semitic language that scribes of that city wrote on clay tablets

Etymology: Ebla was an ancient city in northern Syria, excavated from the 1960s onward, and the word "Eblaite" simply means someone or something belonging to it. The name is formed by adding the suffix "-ite" to "Ebla," a pattern English uses for people and things tied to a place, as in "Israelite" or "Brooklynite." The suffix has a longer ancestry than the city name. It traces back to a Proto-Indo-European element that became "-tēs" in Ancient Greek, where it marked agents and persons connected with something. Greek then produced the "-ītēs" form, which Latin borrowed as "-ītēs" and passed on through French as "-ite," and English took it in from there.