nqꜥwt
Egyptian
FWOTD – 7 February 2022
Etymology
nqꜥ (“to scratch”) + -wt. Sycamore figs were scraped or gashed in order to make them ripen more quickly; otherwise, they would be full of insects and inedible by the time they ripened.[1]
Pronunciation
- (reconstructed Late Egyptian) IPA(key): /nəˈqʼoːʔ/
- (modern Egyptological) IPA(key): /nɛkɑːuːt/
- Conventional anglicization: neqaut
Noun
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m
- (uncountable) ripe sycamore figs
- c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 49–50:
- kꜣw jm ḥnꜥ nq(ꜥ)wt sšpt mj jr.t(w).s
- Unripe sycamore figs were there along with ripe ones, and muskmelons as if cultivated.
Alternative forms
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nqꜥwt
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| nqwt | ||||
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Descendants
- Demotic: ꜣlqw
- Coptic: ⲉⲗⲕⲱ (elkō)
References
- Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache[1], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 343.8–343.12
- Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 141
- Allen, James Peter (2015) Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 21
- ^ Galil, J. (1967) “An Ancient Technique for Ripening Sycomore Fruit in East Mediterranean Countries”