ḥntꜣsw

Egyptian

Pronunciation

(reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ħVnˈtaʀsVw/ → /ħVnˈtaʀsVw/ → /ħənˈtaːsə/ → /ħənˈtoːs/

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /hɛntɑsuː/
- Conventional anglicization: hentasu

Noun

m

a kind of lizard, possibly a gecko [Medical papyri]

Usage notes

As there are about 40 species of lizard in Egypt but very few attested words for kinds of lizards in the Egyptian language, terms such as this may represent a culturally-specific broader category of lizard rather than any one particular species.^[2]

Inflection

Declension of ḥntꜣsw (masculine)

singular	ḥntꜣsw
dual	ḥntꜣswwj
plural	ḥntꜣsww

Descendants

Demotic: ḥnṱs
- Bohairic Coptic: ⲁⲛⲑⲟⲩⲥ (anthous)
- Old Coptic: ϩⲁⲛⲧⲟⲩⲥ (hantous)

References

“ḥntꜣsw (lemma ID 107380)”, 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, page 122.9
Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 173
Wassell, Belinda Ann (1991) Ancient Egyptian fauna: a lexicographical study, volume 1, pages 150–151

^ Gundacker, Roman (2021) “Indirekte und direkte Evidenz für das Dreisilbengesetz: Überlegungen zur ägyptischen Sprachgeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Namen Nofretete und Nefertari sowie einer ungewöhnlichen Schreibung des Toponyms Memphis” in Lingua Aegyptia, volume 29, page 104
^ Dosoo, Korshi (2022), “Living Death and Deading Life: Animal mummies in Graeco-Egyptian Magic and Ritual” in Magikon zōon: Animal et magie dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, page 360: “The lizard used is a “field kalabōtēs” (καλαβώτης ἀπ’ [ἀ]γροῦ, l. 628), which the LSJ (p. 256, s. v. ἀσκᾰλᾰβώτης) suggests to be the common wall gecko (Tarentola mauritanica, formerly Platydactylus mauritanicus). The Egyptian equivalent would seem to be ⲁⲛⲑⲟⲩⲥ/ḥntꜣsw or ϩⲁⲕⲗϥ (W. E. Crum, Coptic Dictionary, op. cit., p. 11a, 664b, s. v.), which B. A. Wassell (Ancient Egyptian Fauna, op. cit., p. 150-151) does not attempt to identify; she notes there are more than 40 species of lizards known in modern Egypt, but only a few terms to designate them; cf. S. Aufrère, “À propos des noms d’espèces appartenant au sous-ordre des sauria (lézards) attestés en Égypte ancienne et médiévale. Un tour d’horizon zoologique et lexicographique”, in S. Porcier, S. Ikram and S. Pasquali (ed.), Creatures of Earth, Water, and Sky: Essays on Animals in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, Leiden, Sidestone Press, 2019, p. 47-65. It seems likely that καλαβώτης and its Egyptian equivalents referred in Egypt to a culturally-specific set of lizards which did not correlate exactly either with the original Greek referent or a single modern species.”

[1] Gundacker, Roman (2021) “Indirekte und direkte Evidenz für das Dreisilbengesetz: Überlegungen zur ägyptischen Sprachgeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Namen Nofretete und Nefertari sowie einer ungewöhnlichen Schreibung des Toponyms Memphis” in Lingua Aegyptia, volume 29, page 104

[2] Dosoo, Korshi (2022), “Living Death and Deading Life: Animal mummies in Graeco-Egyptian Magic and Ritual” in Magikon zōon: Animal et magie dans l’Antiquité et au Moyen Âge, page 360: “The lizard used is a “field kalabōtēs” (καλαβώτης ἀπ’ [ἀ]γροῦ, l. 628), which the LSJ (p. 256, s. v. ἀσκᾰλᾰβώτης) suggests to be the common wall gecko (Tarentola mauritanica, formerly Platydactylus mauritanicus). The Egyptian equivalent would seem to be ⲁⲛⲑⲟⲩⲥ/ḥntꜣsw or ϩⲁⲕⲗϥ (W. E. Crum, Coptic Dictionary, op. cit., p. 11a, 664b, s. v.), which B. A. Wassell (Ancient Egyptian Fauna, op. cit., p. 150-151) does not attempt to identify; she notes there are more than 40 species of lizards known in modern Egypt, but only a few terms to designate them; cf. S. Aufrère, “À propos des noms d’espèces appartenant au sous-ordre des sauria (lézards) attestés en Égypte ancienne et médiévale. Un tour d’horizon zoologique et lexicographique”, in S. Porcier, S. Ikram and S. Pasquali (ed.), Creatures of Earth, Water, and Sky: Essays on Animals in Ancient Egypt and Nubia, Leiden, Sidestone Press, 2019, p. 47-65. It seems likely that καλαβώτης and its Egyptian equivalents referred in Egypt to a culturally-specific set of lizards which did not correlate exactly either with the original Greek referent or a single modern species.”

[1]

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