akh

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Egyptian ꜣḫ.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɑːk/
• Rhymes: -ɑːk

Noun

akh (plural akhs)

1. In Egyptian mythology, (roughly) a spirit of the dead that has successfully completed its transition to the afterlife.
   • 1948, Henri Frankfort, Kingship and the Gods: A Study of Ancient Near Eastern Religion as the Integration of Society and Nature, page 64:

     Their abode is heaven; and the Akh, by contrast with the Ba, does not retain any relation to the body.… It is a deceased, a transcendent being, without earthly or material ties; and, as such, it is the most spiritualized of the various concepts of the dead.

   • 2000, James P. Allen, Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, page 33:

     After spending the night asleep in their tombs, the akhs would wake each morning at sunrise and “come forth from the necropolis” to enjoy an ideal life, free from the cares of physical existence.

   • 2005, Gary A. Stillwell, Afterlife: Post-Mortem Judgments in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, page 118:

     The akh would later become the state achieved when the ba and ka are rejoined.

   • 2009, Janet Balk, “Egyptian Perceptions of Death in Antiquity”, in Clifton D. Bryant, Dennis L. Peck, editors, Encyclopedia of Death and the Human Experience, page 399:

     If a person’s ka and ba were not reunited and akh failed to develop, then everlasting life would not occur.

   • 2015, “Afterlife”, in Eric Orlin, editor, Routledge Encyclopedia of Ancient Mediterranean Religions, page 17:

     Different postmortem aspects of the individual are mentioned in ritual texts, so that it is unclear how they relate to one another: the ka (what leaves the body when death occurs), the ba (the personality of the individual), and the akh (a glorified bodily form).

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Arabic أَخ (ʔaḵ, “brother”). Doublet of ock.

Alternative forms

• akhi (with the pronominal suffix)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /æk/
• Rhymes: -æk

Noun

akh (plural akhs)

1. (Islam, MLE, MTE, slang) Brother; a close male friend or associate.

Anagrams

• KAH, Kha

Old Swedish

Etymology

Drom Middle Low German ach (“an unhappy interjection”).

Interjection

akh

1. alas, oh (exclamation of sorrow, etc.)

Descendants

• Swedish: ack