mḥ

See also: Appendix:Variations of "mh"

Egyptian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /maːħ/ → /maːħ/ → /maːħ/ → /moːħ/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /maːħ/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /maːħ/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /maːħ/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /moːħ/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

Verb

 2-lit.

1. (transitive) to fill
   1. (transitive) to physically fill (a container, vessel, granary, ship, etc.) (+ m or (occasionally) ẖr: with)
   2. (transitive, of people) to fill (a space), to crowd
   3. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (one’s hands or arms) with (something); also, to embrace (someone)
   4. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (a person, one’s body, or one’s mouth) with (food)
   5. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (a place) with (beauty, joy, scent, etc.)
2. (transitive) to complete, to make complete with all members or a full complement, to make whole
3. (transitive) to pay in full
4. (transitive) to inlay (+ m: with) [since the end of the Middle Kingdom]
5. (intransitive) to be(come) full
   1. (intransitive, of containers, one’s arms, etc.) to be(come) physically full (+ m or ẖr: of)
   2. (intransitive, with m or ẖr) to be(come) replete with, full of, abounding in
   3. (intransitive, of animals) to be(come) pregnant, gravid
6. (intransitive) to be(come) complete with all members, full, whole, fully assembled
7. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold or seize
   1. (intransitive with m or transitive) to seize with one’s hand, grasp, lay hold of
   2. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold fast, to grasp
   3. (intransitive with m or transitive) to seize (something) for oneself, to take
   4. (intransitive with m or transitive) to capture (a person), to hold (someone) captive
   5. (intransitive with m or transitive) to capture, to conquer (a city)
   6. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold fast to (orders, plans, etc.), to not deviate from
8. (catenative, with r and following infinitive) to begin, to set about (doing something)

Usage notes

The ‘seize, hold’ senses were originally used with the preposition m and developed from the ‘fill, be(come) full’ senses: ‘become full of’ → ‘become complete with’ → ‘take’. Later the preposition began to be omitted.

Inflection

Conjugation of mḥ (biliteral / 2-lit. / 2rad.) — base stem: mḥ, geminated stem: mḥḥ

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
mḥ	mḥw, mḥ	mḥt	mḥ, j.mḥ	mḥ, j.mḥ

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

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
			aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	mḥ.n	mḥw, mḥ	consecutive	mḥ.jn	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
terminative	mḥt
perfective3	mḥ	active + .tj1, .tw2	obligative1	mḥ.ḫr	active + .tj1, .tw2
imperfective	mḥ, j.mḥ1	active + .tj1, .tw2
prospective3	mḥ	mḥḥ	potentialis1	mḥ.kꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
subjunctive	mḥ, j.mḥ1	active + .tj1, .tw2

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	mḥ.n	active + .tj1, .tw2	—	—
perfective	mḥ	active + .tj1, .tw2	mḥ	mḥḥ, mḥḥj6, mḥ2, mḥw2 5, mḥy2 5
imperfective	j.mḥ1, mḥ, mḥy, mḥw5	active + .tj1, .tw2	j.mḥ1, j.mḥw1 5, mḥ, mḥj6, mḥy6	mḥ, mḥw5
prospective	mḥ, mḥtj7	—	mḥtj4, mḥt4
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.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[since the Old Kingdom]	[19th and 20th Dynasties]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]
				rare		in hieratic

Starting in the 18th Dynasty, the senses relating to ‘seize, hold, capture’ are usually written with a different determinative:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ

[since the 18th Dynasty]

in senses relating to ‘seize, hold, capture’

Similarly, the sense of ‘inlay’ starts taking on different determinatives around the same time:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
[New Kingdom]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]
in sense ‘inlay’	in sense ‘inlay’	in sense ‘inlay’

Derived terms

• mḥw
• mḥ nfr (“pay or satisfy in full”)
• mḥ rdwj (“hurry, run”)

Descendants

• Demotic: mḥ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲟϩ (moh)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)

(From the imperative:)

• ⇒ Demotic: mḥṱ, ꜣmḥṱ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (amahte), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲉ (amahe), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲓ (amahi)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲓ (amahi)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲉϩⲓ (amehi), ⲉⲙⲉϩⲓ (emehi), ⲙⲉϩⲓ (mehi)
  • Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲉⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (emahte)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (amahte), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲉ (amahe)

Etymology 2

From a form of the verb mḥ (“to fill, to be(come) full”) above; the original sense may have been the number ‘brought to fullness’, ‘made complete’.

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /maħ/ → /maħ/ → /maħ/ → /maħ/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħ/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħ/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħ/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħ/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

Prefix

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Forms ordinal numbers greater than nine from cardinal numbers.
2. (Late Egyptian) Forms ordinal numbers greater than one from cardinal numbers.
3. (Late Egyptian) Also forms the ordinal number for one (‘first’). [Greco-Roman Period]

Inflection

Declension of mḥ

	masculine	feminine
singular	mḥ	mḥt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ

Descendants

• Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩ- (meh-), ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩ- (meh-), ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /maħjVw/ → /maħjVw/ → /maħjə/ → /maħi/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħjVw/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħjVw/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħjə/
• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /maħi/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

Noun

 m

1. forearm

Inflection

Declension of mḥ (masculine)

singular	mḥ
dual	mḥwj
plural	mḥw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Late Egyptian and Greco-Roman Period]

Noun

 m

1. a cubit, a measure of length equivalent to 28 ḏbꜥw (“digits”) or 7 šzpw (“palms”) (about 52.5 centimetres).
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 24–28:

     hꜣ.kw r wꜣḏ-wr m dpt nt št-mḏwtj mḥ m ꜣw.s ḥmw mḥ m sḫw.s št-mḏwtj sqd jm.s m stp n(j) kmt

     I had gone down to the sea in a boat of a hundred twenty cubits in length and forty cubits in breadth, with a hundred twenty sailors in it of the choice of Egypt.

2. cubit rod, rod the length of a cubit

Inflection

Declension of mḥ (masculine)

singular	mḥ
dual	mḥwj
plural	mḥw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
abbreviation	abbreviation

Derived terms

• mḥ-nswt
• mḥ šrr
• mḥ-tꜣ

Descendants

• Demotic: mḥ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲉ (mahe)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲓ (mahi)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩⲓ (mehi), ⲙⲁϩⲓ (mahi)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲉ (mahe)

References

• “mḥ (lemma ID 73290)”, “mḥ (lemma ID 73320)”, and “mḥ (lemma ID 73330)”, 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 (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 116.6–118.10, 119.5–119.21, 120.1–120.7
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 113
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 103, 105, 174, 208–209, 257, 269, 461.
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 83
• Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 68
• Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 130