ꜣt

Egyptian

FWOTD – 20 November 2022

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ɑt/
  • Conventional anglicization: at

Noun

 f

1. particular point in time, moment [since the Middle Kingdom]
   • c. 1900 BCE, The Instructions of Kagemni (pPrisse/pBN 183) lines 1.4–1.5:

     ꜣt pw ktt dꜣjr jb ḫw(w) pw ꜣfꜥ jw ḏbꜥ.t(w) jm

     Controlling oneself (lit. Subduing the heart) is a little moment; gluttony is something to be precluded, as it is pointed to in reproach.

2. span of time in general, time, while [since the Middle Kingdom]

   ― jrj ꜣt ― to spend or pass a time, spend a while

3. a small unit of time, smaller than an hour (wnwt) but larger than a ḥꜣt; approximately a minute [Greco-Roman Period]

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (feminine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtj
plural	ꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜣt  

ꜣt	ꜣt	jꜣt	jꜣt	ꜣt	jꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt
		[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]
			in hieratic					abbreviation

Derived terms

• m ꜣt
• m ꜣt.f
• m ꜣt nt
• m ꜣt r ꜣt
• m km n ꜣt
• m tꜣ ꜣt

 

Noun

 f

2. striking power, readiness or ferocity to strike [since the Pyramid Texts]
   • c. 2289 BCE – 2255 BCE, Pyramid Texts of Pepi I — west wall of the antechamber, line 22–23, spell 474.4–474.5:

     pr.f r.f jr pt mm sbꜣw mm j.ḫmw-skj ꜣt ppy tp.f šꜥt.f r gswj.f ḥkꜣw.f jr rd[wj.f]

     So he goes forth to the sky among the stars, among the circumpolar stars, with Pepi’s striking-power atop him, his viciousness at his sides, and his magic at his feet.

Usage notes

While Erman and Grapow note an additional meaning of ꜣt as a ‘head ornament’, Gardiner convincingly argues that this is based on a misinterpretation of passages where it means ‘readiness to strike’. Gardiner also suggests that the ‘moment, time’ sense of ꜣt is not independent, but developed from the ‘readiness to strike’ sense by way of reference to the suddenness or speed of a strike. Allen instead takes the ‘moment’ meaning as primary, rendering the ‘readiness to strike’ sense as ‘moment of rage’.

This word is sometimes used in parallel to pḥtj (“strength”). In other passages it appears in an exactly parallel context to bꜣw (“ba-power, might and glory”): compare PT 474 against PT 306 in the Pyramid Texts.

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (feminine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtj
plural	ꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜣt  

ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt
[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[Old Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Late Egyptian]

Derived terms

• ḫsf ꜣt

 

Noun

 f

1. Alternative form of jꜣt (“mound”)

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (feminine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtj
plural	ꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜣt  

ꜣt

[Late Egyptian]

Noun

 f

1. Late Egyptian form of jꜣt (“back, spine”)

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (feminine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtj
plural	ꜣwt

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜣt  

ꜣt	ꜣt	ꜣt
[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]	[Late Egyptian]

Noun

 f

1. Late Egyptian form of jꜣt (“standard for carrying cult images”)

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (feminine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtj
plural	ꜣwt

Verb

1. Alternative form of ꜣd (“to be aggressive or angry”)

Noun

 m

1. Alternative form of ꜣdw (“aggressor”)

Inflection

Declension of ꜣt (masculine)

singular	ꜣt
dual	ꜣtwj
plural	ꜣtw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of ꜣt  

ꜣt

[18th Dynasty]

Verb

1. Alternative form of ꜣyt (“to blanch^?”)

References

• “ꜣ.t (lemma ID 5)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 17, Web app version 2.01 edition, 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, 2004–15 December 2022
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 1.11–2.5, 22.19, 23.1
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 1, 6
• Lesko, Leonard, Lesko, Barbara (2002) A Dictionary of Late Egyptian, second edition, volume 1, Providence: B.C. Scribe Publications, →ISBN, page 1
• Gardiner, Alan (1948) “The First Two Pages of the Wörterbuch” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 34, p. 13–15
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 455.