nswt

Egyptian

FWOTD – 11 February 2018

Etymology 1

Traditionally (since Sethe 1911) derived from n(j) (“of, belonging”) ‎ swt (“sedge”) in a direct genitive construction with n(j) used as a noun, literally ‘the belonging one of the sedge’, i.e. ‘the one to whom Upper Egypt belongs’, the sedge being an emblem of Upper Egypt. The odd glyph order in the written form is probably due to a preference for forming compact groups of hieroglyphs.

However, this interpretation has been challenged, as Helck, Schenkel, and others have argued that the plant represented by swt is not the emblem of Upper Egypt at all; Schenkel also suggests the reconstructed vocalization of the word does not support such an etymology. Peust goes so far as to say the word has no special connection with Upper Egypt, and derives it as borrowed from Sumerian 𒉺𒋼𒋛 (ensi₂) with the Egyptian noun-forming suffix -w. This might also be suggested by the alternate reading nzw and the cuneiform rendering 𒅔𒋛𒅁𒅀 (in-si-ib-ia) for the compound form nswt-bjtj from a Ramesside-era Hittite letter.

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /nijˈsiːwat/ → /nijˈsiːjaʔ/ → /ʔənˈsiːʔə/ → /ʔənˈsiːʔ/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /nijˈsiːwat/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /nijˈsiːjaʔ/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /ʔənˈsiːʔə/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /ʔənˈsiːʔ/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /nɛsuːt/
  • Conventional anglicization: nesut

Noun

 m

1. king of Upper Egypt
2. king of (Upper and Lower) Egypt, especially as a divine power (as opposed to ḥm, which refers to a particular incarnation that holds that power)
   • Stela of Ity, British Museum, Egyptian Antiquities, 586:

     jw wḥm.n(.j) ḥzt ḫr nswt […]

     I repeated favour before the king […]

Usage notes

Only Egyptian kings were considered nswt and ḥm; foreign kings were regarded as merely ḥqꜣ or wr.

Inflection

Declension of nswt (masculine)

singular	nswt
dual	—
plural	njw-swt, nswtyw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nswt  

nswt	nswt	nswt	nswt	nswt	nswt	nzw	nswt	nswt	nswt
					[Pyramid Texts]		[since the Middle Kingdom]	[since the Middle Kingdom]	[since the Middle Kingdom]
		abbreviation

Much debate centers around the apparent variant form nzw, attested from very early times, and its relation to nswt. Some authors see it as a dialectal variant of the latter; others treat it as an entirely separate word. Schenkel instead reads nswt in a different order as ntsw and considers it a variant spelling of nzw, hypothesizing that the Egyptian z is an affricate equivalent to ts; a number of authors have adopted this suggestion.

In some outdated publications, nswt was read as stn, stnj, or swtn, but these readings are now generally rejected.

Sometimes, based on the traditional etymology, a fuller reading as njswt or nj-swt is given.

Derived terms

• jb-n-nswt
• jpt-nswt
• pr-nswt
• msw-nswt
• nswtyw
• nswt-bjtj
• nswt-nṯrw
• nswt-ḥw
• rḫ-nswt
• ḥtp ḏj nswt
• ẖrj-tp-nswt
• zꜣ-nswt
• zꜣt-nswt

 

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /nɛsuːt/
  • Conventional anglicization: nesut

Noun

 f

1. a kind of spear or javelin [Middle Kingdom literature and Book of the Dead]

Inflection

Declension of nswt (feminine)

singular	nswt
dual	nswtj
plural	nswwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of nswt  

nsjwt	nsjwt	nswt	nstt
[12th Dynasty]	[13th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]
	from Sinuhe version R

References

• “nswt (lemma ID 88040)”, “nswt (lemma ID 851639)”, and “ns.wt (lemma ID 88030)”, 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 (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 324.17, 325.1–329.10
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 139
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 33, 44, 66–68.
• Gardiner, Alan (1957) Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs, third edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, § 54, 72
• Peust, Carsten (2007) “Zur Bedeutung und Etymologie von nzw ‘König’” in Göttinger Miszellen, 213, pp. 59-62
• Schenkel, Wolfgang (1986) “Das Wort für König (von Oberägypten)” in Göttinger Miszellen, 94, pp. 57-73
• Sethe, Kurt (1911) “Das Wort für König von Oberägypten” in Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, vol. 42, issue 1-2
• Windus-Staginsky, Elka (2006) Der ägyptische König im Alten Reich: Terminologie und Phraseologie, p. 16