🔼The name Ir: Summary
- Meaning
- City, Wild Ass
- Etymology
- From the verb ערר ('arar), to strip and accumulate.
🔼The name Ir in the Bible
The name Ir occurs only once in the Bible. It's the name of the father of Huppim and Shuppim of Benjamin (1 Chronicles 7:12). Some scholars say this Ir is the same person as the Iri of 1 Chronicles 7:7, but there is no real reason to assume that.
🔼Etymology of the name Ir
The name Ir obviously comes from the following cluster of words, but it's not clear which exactly:
ערר
The root ערר ('arar) describes an accumulation in one place that results in an emptiness or barrenness everywhere else — both cities and clouds form from this principle, and indeed any sort of commercial or intellectual fortune. Adjectives ערירי ('ariri) and ערער ('ar'ar) mean stripped, childless or destitute. Noun מערה (me'ara) literally means "place of being stripped" and is the Bible's common word for cave. Noun ערוער ('aro'er) denotes some kind of tree or bush (probably one without leaves).
Noun עיר ('ir) is the Bible's common word for city, which constitutes an accumulation of people and goods, usually in the middle of a wide area without remaining trees. Noun עיר ('ayir) came to specifically denote the wild ass, but apparently stems from the more common behavior of standing around in clusters in the middle of a field that's been grazed clean (in other languages this word also denotes gazelles and such).
Verb עור ('awar) means to be or make blind, and blindness occurs most commonly due to a cataract (which looks like a skin forming over the eye, and is due to a cloudy accumulation of protein in the ocular lens). Adjective עור ('iwwer) means blind. Nouns עורון ('iwwaron) and עורת ('awweret) mean blindness.
Verb עור ('ur I) means to rouse oneself — literally to collect and bundle one's feelings. Noun עיר ('ir) means excitement.
Identical verb עור ('ur II) means to be exposed or laid bare. Noun מעור (ma'or) means nakedness and noun מערם (ma'arom) means naked one. Adjectives עירם ('erom), ערם ('erom), ערום ('arom) and ערם ('arom) mean naked. Noun עור ('or) means skin or hide.
Verb ערה ('ara) also means to be naked or bare. Nouns ערה ('ara), מערה (ma'ara) and מער (ma'ar) refer to bare or exposed places. Nouns ערוה ('erwa) and עריה ('erya) mean nakedness or exposure. Noun תער (ta'ar) denotes a thing that makes bare: a razor or sheath of a sword.
🔼Ir meaning
For some reason, NOBSE Study Bible Name List forgoes this name. Alfred Jones (Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names) maintains that our name comes from the noun עיר ('ir), meaning city, and translates it with Citizen. BDB Theological Dictionary doesn't translate or interpret our name, but does confirm that it's identical to the noun עיר, meaning city.
But our name may also have been derived from the noun עיר (ayir), and mean Wild Ass, as are a few other masculine names: Jair II, Arad, and Arod.