mrḥ

Egyptian

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛrɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: mereh

Verb

 3-lit.

1. (intransitive, of buildings and tools) to fall to ruin, to decay [since the 18th Dynasty]
2. (intransitive, of one’s ba or corpse, usually negated) to perish, to die
3. (intransitive, of plans, words, festivals, etc., usually negated) to come to nought, to perish, to be erased

Usage notes

Often found used in parallel with skj (“to perish”).

Inflection

Conjugation of mrḥ (triliteral / 3-lit. / 3rad.) — base stem: mrḥ, geminated stem: mrḥḥ

infinitival forms imperative infinitive negatival complement complementary infinitive1 singular plural mrḥ mrḥw, mrḥ mrḥt mrḥ mrḥ ‘pseudoverbal’ forms stative stem periphrastic imperfective2 periphrastic prospective2 mrḥ ḥr mrḥ m mrḥ r mrḥ suffix conjugation aspect / mood active contingent aspect / mood active perfect mrḥ.n consecutive mrḥ.jn terminative mrḥt perfective3 mrḥ obligative1 mrḥ.ḫr imperfective mrḥ prospective3 mrḥ potentialis1 mrḥ.kꜣ subjunctive mrḥ verbal adjectives aspect / mood relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms participles active active passive perfect mrḥ.n — — perfective mrḥ mrḥ mrḥ, mrḥw5, mrḥy5 imperfective mrḥ, mrḥy, mrḥw5 mrḥ, mrḥj6, mrḥy6 mrḥ, mrḥw5 prospective mrḥ, mrḥtj7 mrḥtj4, mrḥt4 1 Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. 2 Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. 3 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. 4 Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. 5 Only in the masculine singular. 6 Only in the masculine. 7 Only in the feminine.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mrḥ  

mrḥw	mrḥw
[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

Etymology 2

Apparently a back-formation from mrḥt (“oil, fat”); compare the older verb wrḥ (“to anoint”), from which mrḥt itself may originally derive.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛrɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: mereh

Verb

 3-lit.

1. (transitive) to anoint [Late Period literature]
2. (transitive, with m) to coat or provide (a clay figurine) with (enamel)
3. (transitive) to lacquer (wood)

Inflection

Conjugation of mrḥ (triliteral / 3-lit. / 3rad.) — base stem: mrḥ, geminated stem: mrḥḥ

infinitival forms imperative infinitive negatival complement complementary infinitive1 singular plural mrḥ mrḥw, mrḥ mrḥt mrḥ mrḥ ‘pseudoverbal’ forms stative stem periphrastic imperfective2 periphrastic prospective2 mrḥ ḥr mrḥ m mrḥ r mrḥ suffix conjugation aspect / mood active passive contingent aspect / mood active passive perfect mrḥ.n mrḥw, mrḥ consecutive mrḥ.jn active + .tj1, .tw2 active + .tj1, .tw2 terminative mrḥt perfective3 mrḥ active + .tj1, .tw2 obligative1 mrḥ.ḫr active + .tj1, .tw2 imperfective mrḥ active + .tj1, .tw2 prospective3 mrḥ mrḥḥ potentialis1 mrḥ.kꜣ active + .tj1, .tw2 active + .tj1, .tw2 subjunctive mrḥ active + .tj1, .tw2 verbal adjectives aspect / mood relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms participles active passive active passive perfect mrḥ.n active + .tj1, .tw2 — — perfective mrḥ active + .tj1, .tw2 mrḥ mrḥ, mrḥw5, mrḥy5 imperfective mrḥ, mrḥy, mrḥw5 active + .tj1, .tw2 mrḥ, mrḥj6, mrḥy6 mrḥ, mrḥw5 prospective mrḥ, mrḥtj7 — mrḥtj4, mrḥt4 1 Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. 2 Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. 3 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. 4 Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. 5 Only in the masculine singular. 6 Only in the masculine. 7 Only in the feminine.

Etymology 3

Based on the form of the Coptic descendants, apparently the same word as mrḥt (“oil, fat”) in origin; with the loss of syllable-final -t, the originally-feminine word was reanalyzed as a masculine noun when used in the sense of ‘asphalt’.

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /məˈɾeħə/

• (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): /məˈɾeħə/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛrɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: mereh

Noun

 m

1. asphalt [Late Period literature]

Descendants

• Demotic: mrḥ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲣⲏϩⲉ (amrēhe)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲣⲉϩⲓ (mrehi), ⲉⲙⲣⲉϩⲓ (emrehi), ⲙⲃⲣⲉϩⲓ (mbrehi), ⲃⲣⲉϩⲓ (brehi), ⲉⲣⲡⲣⲉϩⲓ (erprehi)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲣⲉϩⲓ (amrehi)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲣⲏϩⲉ (amrēhe), ⲁⲙⲣⲉϩⲉ (amrehe)

References

• “mrḥ (lemma ID 72810)”, “mrḥ (lemma ID 72790)”, and “mrḥ (lemma ID 72800)”, 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 111.11–112.1
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 112