Gilgamesh

noun

Gil·​ga·​mesh ˈgil-gə-ˌmesh How to pronounce Gilgamesh (audio)
gil-ˈgä-
: a legendary Sumerian king and hero of the Gilgamesh Epic

Examples of Gilgamesh in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web This is Holt’s eight charity collaboration to be released, and this lager, made with partner Gilgamesh of Salem, will benefit the Marion-Polk Food Share. oregonlive, 21 July 2023 Upcoming collabs being planned include Ale Apothecary in Bend, Gilgamesh Brewing in Salem, plus another Portland effort to support the Women’s Craft Fermentation Alliance. . . . oregonlive, 31 Mar. 2023 That the Epic of Gilgamesh exists at all is close to a miracle, and has much to do with the bibliophilia of the last great Assyrian king, Ashurbanipal (reigned 669–627 bce), as well as the curatorial talents of desert sand. Robert MacFarlane, The New York Review of Books, 5 Oct. 2022 The Epic of Gilgamesh, a 3,500-year-old poem from ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) covers themes of grief and despair, where cutting or pulling out one’s hair is used to express anguish. Celine Alkhaldi, CNN, 28 Sep. 2022 Among the ancient Sumerians, the constellation may be linked to the Epic of Gilgamesh, where the titular hero fights a bull that comes from the sky called the Bull of Heaven. Joshua Rapp Learn, Discover Magazine, 4 Aug. 2022 An ancient tablet containing part of the Epic of Gilgamesh that was taken from Iraq and sold to Hobby Lobby under false pretenses was returned to that country Thursday. NBC News, 23 Sep. 2021 Last year, Brown told me, Armstrong came into the writers’ room with a big notion about the Epic of Gilgamesh. Rebecca Mead, The New Yorker, 23 Aug. 2021 Ancient Arabs, however, almost certainly did not know the Epic of Gilgamesh. Samuel Sweeney, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2021 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'Gilgamesh.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1894, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of Gilgamesh was in 1894

Dictionary Entries Near Gilgamesh

Cite this Entry

“Gilgamesh.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Gilgamesh. Accessed 24 Sep. 2023.

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