Egyptian
Etymology
Univerbation of jw (sentence-initial particle) + ms (“surely”). The phrase jw ms was so often used to begin sentences intended to persuade that it became an idiom for untruth or exaggeration.
Pronunciation
Noun
m
- exaggeration, untruth, nonsense, humbug [Middle Kingdom to Saite Period]
- ― m jwms ― untruthfully; with fabrication or exaggeration
- ― nn n.f jwms ― he’s not lying (literally, “there is no nonsense to him”)
Inflection
Declension of jwms (masculine)
| singular
|
jwms
|
| dual
|
jwmswj
|
| plural
|
jwmsw
|
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jwms
|
|
|
|
|
| jms
|
ꜣms
|
jwms
|
jms
|
| [Middle Kingdom]
|
[18th Dynasty]
|
[New Kingdom]
|
[Late Period]
|
References
- “jwms (lemma ID 22550)”, 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 (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache[2], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 11, 52.7-9
- Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 3, 13
- James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 198, 456.