sentences:  They were first mentioned in the sources since Rim-Anum (18th century BC), a king of Uruk, and in texts from Mari; then, in the 14th century BC in Egyptian sources, in one of the Amarna letters, in the days of Akhenaten, where it is affirmed that they had advanced until the Euphrates.Although the etymology and meaning is ultimately uncertain, it can be safely be said to derive from the Semitic language family.In the past it was proposed as ""companion or confederate"" by an error of scholar Wayne T. Pitard, comparing it to an unrelated Arabic root, presumably ح ل ف ("ḥ-l-f"), which does indeed mean such.