Pur is a noun meaning 'lot,' likely borrowed from Akkadian puru (a stone used for lot-casting). In Esther 3:7, Haman casts the pur to determine the date for his planned destruction of the Jews, and the text itself glosses pur as haggoral, 'the lot.' The plural form Purim became the name of the joyous festival celebrating the reversal of Haman's plot (Esth 9:26-32). The book of Esther takes care to explain this foreign word to its Hebrew readers, suggesting the term was not native to Hebrew. English and Spanish both preserve the untranslated forms 'Pur' and 'Purim,' while German renders the underlying meaning as 'Los' (lot).