nqꜥwt

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

 m

1. (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  

nqwt

[Middle Kingdom]

Descendants

• Coptic: ⲉⲗⲕⲱ (elkō)

References

• Erman, Adolf; Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 343.8–343.12
• Faulkner, Raymond (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 141
• Allen, James (2015) Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 21

1. Galil, J. (1967) “An Ancient Technique for Ripening Sycomore Fruit in East Mediterranean Countries”