wsṯn
Egyptian edit
Pronunciation edit
- (reconstructed) IPA(key): /ˈwascan/ → /ˈwastan/ → /ˈwastən/ → /ˈwastən/
- (modern Egyptological) IPA(key): /wɛst͡ʃɛn/
- Conventional anglicization: westjen
Verb edit
|
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 edit
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 | ||
| perfect | wsṯn.n |
consecutive | wsṯn.jn |
| terminative | wsṯnt | ||
| perfective3 | wsṯn |
obligative1 | wsṯn.ḫr |
| imperfective | wsṯn | ||
| prospective3 | wsṯnw, wsṯn |
potentialis1 | wsṯn.kꜣ |
| subjunctive | wsṯn | ||
| verbal adjectives | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| aspect / mood | relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms | participles | |
| active | active | passive | |
| perfect | wsṯn.n |
— | — |
| perfective | wsṯn |
wsṯn |
wsṯn, wsṯnw5, wsṯny5 |
| imperfective | wsṯn, wsṯny, wsṯnw5 |
wsṯn, wsṯnj6, wsṯny6 |
wsṯn, wsṯnw5 |
| prospective | wsṯn, wsṯntj7 |
wsṯnwtj1 4, wsṯntj4, wsṯnt4 | |
| |||
Alternative forms edit
Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wsṯn
Derived terms edit
Descendants edit
- Demotic: wstn
References edit
- “wsṯn (lemma ID 50030)”, 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 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.