Egyptian
Etymology 1
Related to zf (“to slaughter, cut up”), zfṯ (“to slaughter”). Also compare Arabic سيف (sayf), Amharic ሰይፍ (säyf), Ancient Greek ξίφος (xíphos).
Pronunciation
- (reconstructed) IPA(key): /ˈzuːfat/ → /ˈsuːfaʔ/ → /ˈsuːfa/ → /ˈseːfə/
Noun
f m
- (feminine) (metal) sword [since the 18th Dynasty]
- (masculine) knife [since the 18th Dynasty]
Inflection
Declension of zft (feminine)
| singular
|
zft
|
| dual
|
zftj
|
| plural
|
zfwt
|
Declension of zft (masculine)
| singular
|
zft
|
| dual
|
zftwj
|
| plural
|
zftw
|
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of zft
|
|
|
|
|
| sft
|
sft
|
zft
|
zt
|
|
|
[19th-20th Dynasty]
|
[Greco-Roman Period]
|
[Greco-Roman Period]
|
Descendants
- Demotic: (sfy)
- Coptic: ⲥⲏϥⲉ (sēfe) (Sahidic, Akhmimic, Lycopolitan), ⲥⲏϥⲓ (sēfi) (Bohairic, Fayyumic)
- → Ancient Greek: ξίφος (xíphos)
Etymology 2
zf (“to be(come) mild, merciful”) + -t.
Pronunciation
Noun
f
- (hapax legomenon) clemency, mercy, gentleness
References
- “zf.t (lemma ID 133420)” and “sf.t (lemma ID 133500)”, 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 (1929) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache[2], volume 3, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 442.7–442.10
- Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 224
- Černý, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN