“When I first saw the statue, I believed it was a Sumerian priestess because she seems to be wearing a circular headband,” he writes, “.although for a priestess I thought she was a bit heavy-handed with the makeup.”įrom the eyes, Starr traveled back up to the head, where it became clear to him that it was no headband this statue was wearing–that it was a hat he’d never seen on a Sumerian woman before. What changed Starr’s mind was an alabaster statue at the Louvre from Girsu, with a little too much eye makeup to be just your run-of-the-mill Sumerian priestess, as he had initially believed. “I believed the reference was a sly mean-spirited joke by the scribe who wrote the King List.” “For a long time I doubted that Ku-Baba even existed,” he writes in the post.

He also included a link to a new post on his website, in which he explains in detail how he arrived at the conclusion that Ku-Baba might have existed after all. “I had to revise my opinion,” he wrote to me in a surprise email. His response, which was basically doubt that she existed at all, left me feeling like I was at a dead end at the time, so I abandoned the idea of writing about her.įast forward to today, and Starr has changed his mind. Nonetheless, I wrote to Starr with the hope he would have some information about Ku-Baba, or at least a good source he could point me toward. It was as if I was just imagining this rather intriguing figure. Public woman 'prostitute' is by 1580s, on the notion of 'open for the use of all.' For public house, see pub.A long while ago, I wanted to write about Ku-Baba, the only woman on the Sumerian King List. I went first to my go-to source on anything Sumerian, Sumerian Shakespeare, and found that Jerald Starr, the brain behind the site, had not mentioned Ku-Baba at all. Public funds (1713) are the funded debts of a government. Public enemy, one considered a nuisance to the general community, is attested from 1756. Public office 'position held by a public official' is from 1821 public service is from 1570s public interest 'the common well-being' is from 1670s. Public relations 'the management of the relationship between a company or corporation and the general public' is recorded by 1913 (with an isolated use by Thomas Jefferson in 1807). The sense of 'done or made by or on behalf of the community as a whole' is by 1550s that of 'regarding or directed to the interests of the community at large, patriotic' is from c. An Old English adjective in this sense was folclic.

as 'pertaining to public affairs.' The meaning 'open to all in the community, to be shared or participated in by people at large' is from 1540s in English. as 'of or pertaining to the people at large' and from late 15c. 1300) and directly from Latin publicus 'of the people of the state done for the state,' also 'common, general, of or belonging to the people at large ordinary, vulgar,' and as a noun, 'a commonwealth public property.' This Latin word was altered (probably by influence of Latin pubes 'adult population, adult ' see pubis) from Old Latin poplicus 'pertaining to the people,' from populus 'people' (see people (n.)).Īttested in English from early 15c. Late 14c., publike, 'open to general observation,' from Old French public (c.

Old word for tavern keeper