proper noun · masculinesecond declension
Nabataeī
Nabataeī m pl (genitive Nabataeōrum)
Classical[na.baˈtae̯.iː]Ecclesiastical[na.baˈtɛː.i]
Meaning
- The Nabataeans, ancient inhabitants of Nabataea, a region of Arabia that covers parts of northern Arabia and the Southern Levant, lying between Arabia and Syria, and stretching from the Euphrates river to the Red Sea. During the Hellenistic Period, the Nabataeans were involved in a nexus of trade routes reaching as far as Italy to the west and India to the east, which centered at their city of Petra in what is now Western Jordan near the Negev Desert from before 310 BCE until the Roman conquest in 106 CE.
- historicalAny of a group of people who once lived around modern Jordan.
Declension
| form | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| nominative | — | Nabataeī |
| genitive | — | Nabataeōrum |
| dative | — | Nabataeīs |
| accusative | — | Nabataeōs |
| ablative | — | Nabataeīs |
| vocative | — | Nabataeī |
Origins
Borrowed from Ancient Greek Ναβαταῖος (Nabataîos), which was borrowed from Nabataean Aramaic 𐢕𐢃𐢋𐢈 (nbṭw). Possibly cognate with Arabic النبطي (an-Nabaṭī, “Nabataean, Nabaṭ”), Arabic أَنْبَاط (ʔanbāṭ), and Hebrew נבטים (nabaṭim, “Nabataeans”), and Hebrew נבטית (nabaṭit, “Nabataean (adj.)”), all of which might be ultimately derived from the same Semitic root, perhaps Proto-Semitic *nabat-, possibly cognate with Akkadian nabāṭu ("to shine brightly").