wnwt

Egyptian

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): /wVˈnaːwat/ → /wVˈnaːjaʔ/ → /wəˈnaːʔə/ → /wəˈnoːʔ/

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

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

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

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

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

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /wɛnuːt/
  • Conventional anglicization: wenut

Noun

 f

1. (unequal) hour (one twelfth of the period of daylight or one twelfth of the period of night) [since the Pyramid Texts]
   • c. 1401 BCE, Amduat of Amenhotep II (tomb of Amenhotep II, KV35) First Hour, closing text, line 16:

     wnwt pw {pt}tpt nt grḥ

     It is the first hour of the night.

2. nonspecific span of time; moment, time, hour
3. hourly duties or service, work to be performed regularly [since the Old Kingdom]

Inflection

Declension of wnwt (feminine)

singular	wnwt
dual	wnwtj
plural	wnwwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wnwt  

wnwt	wnwt	wnwt	wnwt	wnwt
				in the sense ‘duties’

Derived terms

• jmj wnwt (“astronomer”)
• m wnwt (“intermittently”)
• n wnwt (“in a moment”)
• šps wnwt bjnt (“to have a bad time”)

 

Descendants

• Demotic: wnwt
  • Coptic: ⲟⲩⲛⲟⲩ (ounou)

Noun

 m

1. (collective) hourly staff, workers assigned duties to be performed regularly [since the Middle Kingdom]
2. (collective) in particular, the hourly staff or hour-priesthood of a temple

   Synonym: wnwt-ḥwt-nṯr

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wnwt  

wnwt	wnwt

The forms given above under the senses for ‘hour’ etc. can also be used with this meaning.

Derived terms

• wnwt-ḥwt-nṯr

References

• “wnw.t (lemma ID 46420)” and “wnw.t (lemma ID 46430)”, 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 (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 316.1–317.8
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 61
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 107, 459.
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 83