Hurrian

[ hoor-ee-uhn ]

noun

1. a member of an ancient people, sometimes identified with the Horites, who lived in the Middle East during the 2nd and 3rd millenniums b.c. and who established the Mitanni kingdom about 1400 b.c.
2. the extinct language of the Hurrians, written in a syllabic, cuneiform script but not known to be related to any other language.

adjective

1. of or relating to the Hurrians or their language.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Hurrian¹

1910–15; < Hebrew ḥōrī Horite + -an

Example Sentences

One Hittite king foreshadows Greek historiography when he chronicles in detail his frustration at the incompetence of some of his military officers during the siege of a Hurrian city.

From The Guardian

She was guided in part by the work of music scholar Anne Draffkorn Kilmer, who came up with a score for the Hurrian hymn to Nikkal, the "oldest song in the world," recorded on a clay tablet found in the ancient city of Ugarit dating to the second millennia B.C. 

From Newsweek

Was I molded and cast by a Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Kassite, Hurrian, Hyksos, Elamite, or by some barbaric genius of the Caucasus?

From Time Magazine Archive