nj zp jwt ḫt nb jm

Egyptian

Etymology

nj zp (never) +‎ jwt (subjunctive of jwj (to come)) +‎ ḫt (thing) +‎ nb (any) +‎ jm (in, from) +‎ (.j) (first-person singular suffix pronoun), thus literally ‘never did any thing come from me’.

Pronunciation

  • (modern Egyptological) IPA(key): /ni zɛp iuːt xɛt nɛb im/
    • Conventional anglicization: ni zep iut khet neb im

Phrase




  1. a common formulaic protestation of goodness in tomb autobiographies: nothing bad ever happened because of me, no fault was ever found with me

Alternative forms

Some variants omit nb from this phrase:

References

  • Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 12
  • Grapow, Hermann, et al. (1897–1939) Das digitalisierte Zettelarchiv des “Wörterbuches der ägyptischen Sprache” (DZA)[1], Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, published 1999, DZA 20.417.880 to 20.417.940