Etymology 1
The actual reading of this word is uncertain, as it is always written as an ideogram, but evidence from Coptic suggests the original was rꜣ. The extension in meaning to ‘part, piece, fraction’ might be either by way of a mouthful being used as a standard share in some distribution of food or goods,[1] or else extended from its meaning of ‘opening’ > ‘division’.
Noun
m
- mouth (of humans or animals)
- Reign of Amenemhat II or Senusret II, c. 1929–1878 BCE, Stela of Hekaib (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, AP 78):
- jnk nḏs jqr ḏd m r(ꜣ).f
- I was an excellent individual, one who spoke with his own mouth.
- (figuratively, chiefly in titles) speaker, mouthpiece
- utterance, statement
- especially, ritual utterance, spell
- (rare) language, manner of speech
- opening, hole
- bodily orifice, opening of the human body in general, including eyes, ears, nostrils, the vulva, and open wounds
- entrance to a building, doorway
- entrance to a land or place in general
- mouth of a river
- water’s edge, waterline
- (especially in compounds) place or thing seen as an opening from one point to another, passage, thoroughfare
- a measure of volume equivalent to 1⁄32 of a hnw or 1⁄320 of a ḥqꜣt (about 15 millilitres); mouthful
- part, piece, fraction
- (mathematics) used as a numerator of 1 in fractions, literally “piece of (the denominator)”.
- 12th Dynasty, Siut Tomb I, 285, published in Griffith, Francis Llewellyn, The inscriptions of Siûṭ and Dêr Rîfeh:
Usage notes
Following Sethe,
[3] it has often been suggested that
r should also be taken to mean ‘one third’ as a reading of the sign
(questionably attested in hieroglyphs proper), extrapolating backward from the dual form
rwj (“two thirds”); however, such a usage remains uncertain, and the reading of the form
ḫmt-rw (“three fourths”) argues against the interpretation of
r in
rwj as specifically meaning a third.
Inflection
More information singular, dual ...
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Declension of r (masculine consonant-stem)
In the sense of ‘mouth’ the plural is rare, as the singular is usually used even in reference to the mouths of multiple people.
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of r
|
|
|
|
r |
r |
jr |
r |
|
[New Kingdom] |
[21st Dynasty] |
[Greco-Roman Period] |
rare |
|
in hieratic |
The senses relating to ‘opening, doorway’ sometimes carry different determinatives:
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of r
|
|
r |
r |
[Old and Middle Kingdoms and Greco-Roman Period] |
[Old and Middle Kingdoms and Greco-Roman Period] |
in senses relating to ‘opening, doorway’ |
in senses relating to ‘opening, doorway’ |
The sense ‘water’s edge’ is similarly sometimes found with a different determinative:
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of r
Descendants
- Demotic: rꜣ
- Coptic: ⲣⲟ (ro) (Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic), ⲗⲁ (la) (Fayyumic)
Etymology 2
Possibly cognate to Hebrew אֶל (ʾel, “to, at”), Arabic إِلَى (ʔilā, “to, until, near”).[4]
Preposition
- regarding, with respect to, concerning, according to
- in order to, for (the purpose of)
- (with following infinitive) forms the periphrastic prospective of a verb
- (with verbs of motion, of places) to, towards
- (in adverbial sentences, of places, roles, or functions) headed for, destined for, bound for
- (of time) at, in, on
- against, in opposition to
- from, apart from (ablative)
- (after an adjective or adverb, forming the comparative) than, by comparison to
- (generally in sentence-initial form jr) introduces the protasis of a conditional sentence; if, when, as
- (with a verb in the terminative as object) until
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of r
|
|
jr |
jw |
[since the Old Kingdom] |
[Late Period] |
at the beginning of a sentence, and occasionally before pronouns; in wider usage in the Old Kingdom |
Descendants
- Akhmimic Coptic: ⲁ- (a-), ⲁⲣⲁ⸗ (ara⸗)
- Bohairic Coptic: ⲉ- (e-), ⲉⲣⲟ⸗ (ero⸗)
- Fayyumic Coptic: ⲉ- (e-), ⲁⲗⲁ⸗ (ala⸗)
- Sahidic Coptic: ⲉ- (e-), ⲉⲣⲟ⸗ (ero⸗)
Particle
enclitic
- (with attached suffix pronoun) so, regarding (that, you, me, etc.), as for (that, you, me, etc.)
Usage notes
This usage is distinguished from the preposition by the fact that it occurs as the enclitic second element in a clause instead of at the end of a clause, as is otherwise the case with prepositional phrases.
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of r
References
- “rʾ (lemma ID 92560)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.01 edition, 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, 2004–15 December 2022
- “r (lemma ID 91900)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.01 edition, 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, 2004–15 December 2022
- “jr (lemma ID 28170)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae, Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.01 edition, 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, 2004–15 December 2022
- Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 103.6–103.9
- Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 386.6–388.10, 389.1–392.10
- Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 145–146
- James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 65, 71, 87, 118, 170, 179–180, 196, 410–411.
- Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 429
- Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 42
Palma, Helena Lopez (2015) “Egyptian Fractional Numerals: The grammar of Egyptian NPs and statements with fractional number expressions” in Lingua Aegyptia, volume 23, page 199
Loprieno, Antonio (1995) Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 58 Sethe, Kurt (1916) Von Zahlen und Zahlworten bei den alten Ägyptern, page 82–83
Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 15