jwms

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

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iuːmɛs/
  • Conventional anglicization: iumes

Noun

 m

1. 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 forms

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, 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, 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.