wsṯn

Egyptian

FWOTD – 28 June 2022

Pronunciation

(reconstructed) IPA^(key): /ˈwascan/ → /ˈwastan/ → /ˈwastən/ → /ˈwastən/

(modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /wɛst͡ʃɛn/
- Conventional anglicization: westjen

Verb

4-lit.

(intransitive) to go freely, to stride unimpeded, unhindered (+ m or ḥr: in (a place)) [since the Middle Kingdom]
(intransitive) to freely take a place or seat (+ m: in (a boat))
(intransitive, of limbs) to have freedom of movement, to be able to move freely
(intransitive, figuratively) to make free, to have free rein
- c. 1900 BCE, The Instructions of Kagemni (pPrisse/pBN 183) lines 1.6–1.7:
  
  ẖz pw ḥnt n ẖt.f swꜣ tr smḫ.n.f wstn ẖt m pr.sn
  He who is greedy for the sake of his belly when the proper time passes, having forgotten those in whose house his belly roams free, is a wretch.^[1]

Inflection

Conjugation of wsṯn (quadriliteral / 4-lit. / 4rad.) — base stem: wsṯn

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive¹	singular	plural
wsṯn	wsṯnw, wsṯn	wsṯnt	wsṯn	wsṯn

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

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	contingent
aspect / mood	active	aspect / mood	active
perfect	wsṯn.n	consecutive	wsṯn.jn
terminative	wsṯnt	consecutive	wsṯn.jn
perfective³	wsṯn	obligative¹	wsṯn.ḫr
imperfective	wsṯn	obligative¹	wsṯn.ḫr
prospective³	wsṯnw, wsṯn	potentialis¹	wsṯn.kꜣ
subjunctive	wsṯn	potentialis¹	wsṯn.kꜣ

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms	participles
aspect / mood	active	active	passive
perfect	wsṯn.n	—	—
perfective	wsṯn	wsṯn	wsṯn, wsṯnw⁵, wsṯny⁵
imperfective	wsṯn, wsṯny, wsṯnw⁵	wsṯn, wsṯnj⁶, wsṯny⁶	wsṯn, wsṯnw⁵
prospective	wsṯn, wsṯntj⁷	wsṯnwtj^{1 4}, wsṯntj⁴, wsṯnt⁴

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 wsṯn

wstn

wsṯn

wstn

wstnw

wsdnw

wstnw

[since the Middle Kingdom]

[New Kingdom]

[19th Dynasty]

[Greco-Roman Period]

Derived terms

m wsṯn

Descendants

Demotic: wstn
- Bohairic Coptic: ⲟⲩⲟⲥⲑⲉⲛ (ouosthen)
- Fayyumic Coptic: ⲟⲩⲟⲥⲧⲉⲛ (ouosten)
- Sahidic Coptic: ⲟⲩⲟⲥⲧⲛ (ouostn)

References

“wsṯn (lemma ID 50030)”, 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 367.9–368.4
Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 69
James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 156, 250.

^ The latter part of this sentence is ambiguous and can be interpreted in numerous ways. Both swꜣ tr (“(when) the proper time passes”) and smḫ.n .f wstn ẖt m pr .sn (“he has forgotten/having forgotten…, etc.”) may be taken either as adverbial clauses (as rendered here) or main clauses. Furthermore, if wstn is taken as a participle rather than a relative form, the phrase it introduces could mean ‘he whose belly roams free at home’ rather than ‘those in whose house his belly roams free’; in this case the preceding perfect verb form smḫ.n demands a different interpretation. One possible solution is to read it with a counterfactual meaning ‘would that he forgot…’ instead of ‘he has forgotten…’; this is substantially the tack taken in Simpson 2003, The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Such counterfactual uses of the bare perfect are, however, rare. Another solution is that taken in Allen 2015, Middle Egyptian Literature, who reinterprets smḫ.n.f as smḫ nf (“those forget…”), taking nf as a pronoun referring to the “multitude” mentioned several sentences prior. This proposed antecedent is, however, far enough removed as to make such an interpretation doubtful.

[1] The latter part of this sentence is ambiguous and can be interpreted in numerous ways. Both swꜣ tr (“(when) the proper time passes”) and smḫ.n .f wstn ẖt m pr .sn (“he has forgotten/having forgotten…, etc.”) may be taken either as adverbial clauses (as rendered here) or main clauses. Furthermore, if wstn is taken as a participle rather than a relative form, the phrase it introduces could mean ‘he whose belly roams free at home’ rather than ‘those in whose house his belly roams free’; in this case the preceding perfect verb form smḫ.n demands a different interpretation. One possible solution is to read it with a counterfactual meaning ‘would that he forgot…’ instead of ‘he has forgotten…’; this is substantially the tack taken in Simpson 2003, The Literature of Ancient Egypt. Such counterfactual uses of the bare perfect are, however, rare. Another solution is that taken in Allen 2015, Middle Egyptian Literature, who reinterprets smḫ.n.f as smḫ nf (“those forget…”), taking nf as a pronoun referring to the “multitude” mentioned several sentences prior. This proposed antecedent is, however, far enough removed as to make such an interpretation doubtful.

[1]