ḫfꜣj

Egyptian

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /xɛfɑi/
  • Conventional anglicization: khefai

Verb

 4ae inf.

1. (transitive) to illuminate (something), to brighten, to fill with light
   • c. 1290–1279 BCE (reign of Seti I), Temple of Karnak, Great Hypostyle Hall, B 327: east wall, north wing, fourth register, seventh scene from the north (KIU 889), lines 1–3:

     
     

     ḫfꜣ.t(w) pr pn jn jmn nb-nswt-tꜣwy wp.f rnpt nfrt ḥnꜥ rꜥ swḫꜣ.f ḥnꜥ ḏḥwtj tkꜣ(w) m ḥḏt ḥbsw m rḫt

     May this house be illuminated by Amun, lord of the thrones of the Two Lands when he [op]ens a good year together with Re, when he passes the night together with Thoth and a taper consisting of white (fat) and cleaned cloth. (translation by Brand et al.)

   • c. 51–30 BCE (reign of Cleopatra VII), Temple of Hathor at Dendera, roof kiosk (chamber W'), east gate, inner side, right (south) door post, D 8, 17.7:

     tkꜣw ꜥt n(j) mꜣw(t) ḥbs nw(j) b(ꜣ)ẖtt ḫf(ꜣ) pr pn

     Taper of fresh fat and brilliant cloth, illuminate this house!

Inflection

Conjugation of ḫfꜣj (fourth weak / 4ae inf. / IV. inf.) — base stem: ḫfꜣ, geminated stem: ḫfꜣꜣ

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
ḫfꜣ	ḫfꜣw, ḫfꜣyw, ḫfꜣ	ḫfꜣt, ḫfꜣwt, ḫfꜣyt	ḫfꜣ	ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣy

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective2		periphrastic prospective2
ḫfꜣ8	ḥr ḫfꜣ	m ḫfꜣ	r ḫfꜣ

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
			aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	ḫfꜣ.n	ḫfꜣw, ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣy	consecutive	ḫfꜣ.jn	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
terminative	ḫfꜣt
perfective3	ḫfꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2	obligative1	ḫfꜣ.ḫr	active + .tj1, .tw2
imperfective	ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣy	active + .tj1, .tw2
prospective3	ḫfꜣw, ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣy	ḫfꜣꜣ	potentialis1	ḫfꜣ.kꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
subjunctive	ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣy	active + .tj1, .tw2

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	ḫfꜣ.n	active + .tj1, .tw2	—	—
perfective	ḫfꜣw1, ḫfꜣy, ḫfꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2	ḫfꜣ	ḫfꜣy, ḫfꜣ
imperfective	ḫfꜣꜣ, ḫfꜣꜣy, ḫfꜣꜣw5	active + .tj1, .tw2	ḫfꜣꜣ, ḫfꜣꜣj6, ḫfꜣꜣy6	ḫfꜣꜣ, ḫfꜣꜣw5
prospective	ḫfꜣw1, ḫfꜣy, ḫfꜣ, ḫfꜣtj7	—	ḫfꜣwtj1 4, ḫfꜣtj4, ḫfꜣt4
Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective. Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. Only in the masculine singular Only in the masculine. Only in the feminine. Third-person masculine statives of this class often have a final -y instead of the expected stative ending.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ḫfꜣj  

ḫfꜣj	ḫfj	ḫfj	ḫfj
[19th Dynasty]	[Saite Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

References

• “ḫfꜣi̯ (lemma ID 116590)”, 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 271.9
• Meeks, Dimitri (1977) Année Lexicographique Égypte Ancienne vol. I, 77.3061
• Meeks, Dimitri (1978) Année Lexicographique Égypte Ancienne vol. II, 78.2999
• Brand, Peter J., Feleg, Rosa Erika, and Murnane, William J. (2018) The Great Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, volume 1, part 2: Translation and Commentary, pages 299–300:

  According to Nelson, ḫfꜢ.t seems to mean “to fill (with light).” See JNES 8 (1949), pp. 339–40 and n. 166 with references cited therein. Although it does not appear in the Berlin Dictionary, ḫfꜢ.t might simply be a fuller writing of ḫf “illuminate”; Wb. III, p. 271.