The Tigris is the eastern member of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Turkey through Iraq. Etymology The original Sumerian name was Idigna or Idigina, probably from *id (i)gina "running water",F. Delitzsch, Sumerisches Glossar, Leipzig (1914), IV, 6, 21. which can be interpreted as "the swift river", contrasted to its neighbor, the Euphrates, whose leisurely pace caused it to deposit more silt and build up a higher bed than the Tigris. This form was borrowed and gave rise to Akkadian Idiqlat. Either through a Persian intermediary or directly from Akkadian, the word was adopted into Greek as Tigris (which is also Greek for "tiger"). In the Hebrew Bible, the river was called ????????? (?idd?qel, KJV Hiddekel) In Turkish, di? means tooth and also explains "sharpness". P

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