mr-wr

Egyptian

Etymology 1

From mr (“canal, pool”) +‎ wr (“great”).

Pronunciation

• (reconstructed Late Egyptian) IPA^(key): /məˈweːɾ/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛr wɛr/
  • Conventional anglicization: mer-wer

Proper noun

  m./f. topo.

1. the main canal in the Faiyum, the Bahr Yussef, connecting Lake Moeris to the Nile [since the New Kingdom]
2. the town of Moeris near Crocodilopolis (modern Faiyum), along the northern side of the Moeris canal [since the New Kingdom]

Usage notes

Earlier sources mistakenly identified this word as referring to Lake Moeris itself, but the word does not seem to have been used this way in Egyptian.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mr-wr  

mr-wr	mr-wr

Descendants

• Demotic: mꜣ-wr, m-wr, mr-wr, mw-wr
  • → Ancient Greek: Μοῖρις (Moîris), Μῠῆρῐς (Mŭêrĭs) — 3rd century BCE, Μοῆρῐς (Moêrĭs) — 2nd century BCE onward, Μεῦρῐς (Meûrĭs) — attested once, 228 BCE
    • Greek: Μοίρις (Moíris)
    • → Latin: Moeris
      • → English: Moeris

Etymology 2

From mr (“bull”) +‎ wr (“great”).

A canopic jar containing the intestines of a Mnevis bull

Proper noun

 m

1. Mnevis, a solar bull god venerated in Heliopolis, considered to be embodied in a living black bull selected by the priesthood there and later sometimes treated as an aspect of the god Atum-Ra [since the 18th Dynasty]

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mr-wr  

mr-wr	mr-wr	mr-wr	wr-mr	mr-wr	mr-wr	wr-mr	wr-mr
						[Late Period]	[Late Period]

Derived terms

• mr (ellipsis of mr-wr)

Descendants

• Demotic: mr-wr, m-wr
  • → Ancient Greek: Μνεῦῐς (Mneûĭs), Μνηῦις (Mnēûis)
    • → Latin: Mnēvis
      • → English: Mnevis
  • Old Coptic: ⲉⲙⲛⲉⲩⲓ (emneui)

References

• “Mr-wr (lemma ID 72220)” and “Mr-wr (lemma ID 72230)”, 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 97.13, 106.4–106.6
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 112
• Vandorpe, Katelijn (2004) “The Henet of Moeris and the Ancient Administrative Division of the Fayum in two parts” in Archiv für Papyrusforschung 50/1, p. 61-78
• Takács, Gábor (2007) Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, pages 392-395, →ISBN