ḥn

See also: hn, HN, hN, h*n, .hn, Hn., ḫn, and ẖn

Egyptian

Pronunciation

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /hɛn/
- Conventional anglicization: hen

Verb

2-lit.

(transitive) to bring (a temple, the land, etc.) into order
(transitive) to equip, to supply (buildings or people) (+ m: with)
(transitive) to protect, to guard (something holy: a temple, tomb, or god) (+ r: against)
(transitive) to order, to command (something to be done)
(intransitive) to order, to command (+ n: someone; + r and infinitive: to do (something))
(transitive) to say forcefully, to impress (+ n: to, upon (someone))
(transitive) to engage (people) to do something, to set to some task
(transitive) to entrust or charge (+ n: someone) to do (something)
(transitive) to commend, to entrust (someone) (+ n: to (someone else))

Inflection

Conjugation of ḥn (biliteral / 2-lit. / 2rad.) — base stem: ḥn, geminated stem: ḥnn

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive¹	singular	plural
ḥn	ḥnw, ḥn	ḥnt	ḥn, j.ḥn	ḥn, j.ḥn

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective²		periphrastic prospective²
ḥn	ḥr ḥn	m ḥn	r ḥn

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
aspect / mood	active	passive	aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	ḥn.n	ḥnw, ḥn	consecutive	ḥn.jn	active + .tj¹, .tw²
perfect	ḥn.n	active + .tj¹, .tw²
terminative	ḥnt
perfective³	ḥn	active + .tj¹, .tw²	obligative¹	ḥn.ḫr	active + .tj¹, .tw²
imperfective	ḥn, j.ḥn¹	active + .tj¹, .tw²	obligative¹	ḥn.ḫr	active + .tj¹, .tw²
prospective³	ḥn	ḥnn	potentialis¹	ḥn.kꜣ	active + .tj¹, .tw²
prospective³	ḥn	active + .tj¹, .tw²
subjunctive	ḥn, j.ḥn¹	active + .tj¹, .tw²

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
aspect / mood	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	ḥn.n	active + .tj¹, .tw²	—	—
perfective	ḥn	active + .tj¹, .tw²	ḥn	ḥnn, ḥnnj⁶, ḥn², ḥnw^{2 5}, ḥny^{2 5}
imperfective	j.ḥn¹, ḥn, ḥny, ḥnw⁵	active + .tj¹, .tw²	j.ḥn¹, j.ḥnw^{1 5}, ḥn, ḥnj⁶, ḥny⁶	ḥn, ḥnw⁵
prospective	ḥn, ḥntj⁷	—	ḥntj⁴, ḥnt⁴

¹ Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian.
² Used mostly since Middle Egyptian.
³ Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective.
⁴ Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. ⁵ Only in the masculine singular.
⁶ Only in the masculine.
⁷ Only in the feminine.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ḥn

ḥn

[Old Kingdom]

Descendants

Coptic: ϩⲱⲛ (hōn)

Verb

2-lit.

(intransitive) to go with speed and purpose, to hurry, to advance speedily (+ r and infinitive or + following clause: to go do (something); + r: to (a place); + n: to (a person); + m: from (a place); + ḥnꜥ or jrm: with (someone))
(intransitive) to attack, to move against an enemy

Inflection

Conjugation of ḥn (biliteral / 2-lit. / 2rad.) — base stem: ḥn, geminated stem: ḥnn

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive¹	singular	plural
ḥn	ḥnw, ḥn	ḥnt	ḥn, j.ḥn	ḥn, j.ḥn

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective²		periphrastic prospective²
ḥn	ḥr ḥn	m ḥn	r ḥn

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	contingent
aspect / mood	active	aspect / mood	active
perfect	ḥn.n	consecutive	ḥn.jn
terminative	ḥnt	consecutive	ḥn.jn
perfective³	ḥn	obligative¹	ḥn.ḫr
imperfective	ḥn, j.ḥn¹	obligative¹	ḥn.ḫr
prospective³	ḥn	potentialis¹	ḥn.kꜣ
subjunctive	ḥn, j.ḥn¹	potentialis¹	ḥn.kꜣ

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms	participles
aspect / mood	active	active	passive
perfect	ḥn.n	—	—
perfective	ḥn	ḥn	ḥnn, ḥnnj⁶, ḥn², ḥnw^{2 5}, ḥny^{2 5}
imperfective	j.ḥn¹, ḥn, ḥny, ḥnw⁵	j.ḥn¹, j.ḥnw^{1 5}, ḥn, ḥnj⁶, ḥny⁶	ḥn, ḥnw⁵
prospective	ḥn, ḥntj⁷	ḥntj⁴, ḥnt⁴

¹ Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian.
² Used mostly since Middle Egyptian.
³ Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective.
⁴ Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. ⁵ Only in the masculine singular.
⁶ Only in the masculine.
⁷ Only in the feminine.

References

“ḥn (lemma ID 105900)”, “ḥn (lemma ID 105920)”, and “ḥn (lemma ID 105930)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning by order of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils by order of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 2004–26 July 2023
Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1929) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 3, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 101.1–101.20, 102–103.22
Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 171
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 83, 465.