'Cuneiform' means 'wedge-shaped' — Latin 'cuneus' (wedge) describing Mesopotamian clay-tablet writing.
An ancient system of writing using wedge-shaped impressions made in clay tablets, developed in Mesopotamia and used across the ancient Near East for over three thousand years.
Coined in the early eighteenth century from Latin 'cuneus' (wedge) and 'forma' (shape, form). The term was invented by modern European scholars to describe the characteristic wedge-shaped marks of Mesopotamian scripts. Latin 'cuneus' derives from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ḱū- (sharp, pointed). The writing