wsjr

Egyptian

Etymology

Several proposals have been made for the etymology and meaning of the original name; as Smith (2017) notes, none are fully convincing. Most take wsjr as the accepted transliteration, following Adolf Erman:

• Griffiths (1980), “bearing in mind Erman’s emphasis on the fact that the name must begin with an [sic] w”, proposes a derivation from wsr with an original meaning of “The Mighty One”.
• Sethe (1930) proposes a compound st-jrt, meaning “seat of the eye”, in a hypothetical earlier form *wst-jrt; this is rejected by Griffiths on phonetic grounds.
• Lorton (1985) takes up a similar compound but explains st-jrt as signifying “product, something made”, from the verb jrj, with Osiris representing the product of the mummification process.
• Westendorf (1987) proposes an etymology from wꜣst-jrt “she who bears the eye”.
• Zeidler (2000) reviews the common hypotheses and rejects the interpretation of the second element as either jrj (“to do, make”) or jrt (“eye”) on phonetic grounds, ultimately agreeing with Griffiths on the meaning and rendering the name (w)sr(w) with the assumption that the writing of the name reflects an archaic use of the throne and eye hieroglyphs as uniliteral signs.
• Smith (2017) makes no definitive proposals but asserts that the second element must be a form of jrj (“to do, make”) (rather than jrt (“eye”)), since the word is found complemented with r in writings of the Middle Kingdom.

However, recently alternative transliterations have been proposed:

• Muchiki (1990) reexamines Erman’s evidence that the throne hieroglyph in the word is to be read ws and finds it unconvincing, suggesting instead that the name should be read ꜣsjr on the basis of Aramaic, Phoenician, and Old South Arabian transcriptions, readings of the throne sign in other words, and comparison with ꜣst (“Isis”).
• Allen (2010) reads the word as jsjrt but later revises the reading (2013) to jsjrj and derives it from js-jrj, meaning “engendering (male) principle”.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /wɛsir/
  • Conventional anglicization: wesir

Proper noun

 m

1. the god Osiris
   • c. 1550 BCE – 1295 BCE, Great Hymn to Osiris (Stela of Amenmose, Louvre C 286) line 1:

     j.nḏ ḥr.k wsjr nb nḥḥ nswt nṯr(w) ꜥšꜣ rnw ḏsr ḫprw štꜣ jrw m rw-prw

     Hail to you, Osiris, lord of eternity, king of gods, numerous of names, sacred of developments, secret of rites in temples!

2. (in funerary literature) conventionally appended before the name of the deceased: Osirian form of a dead person, deceased person as Osiris (see usage notes)

Usage notes

As a designation for the deceased, this word has traditionally been interpreted as standing in apposition to the dead person’s name, identifying them with the god Osiris: ‘the Osiris N.N.’ However, a variant form of this construction with the word n(j) (“of”) inserted between the two elements is attested since the Coffin Texts. This suggests the version where the two are juxtaposed is in fact a direct genitive construction meaning ‘the Osiris of N.N.’, not an apposition. Smith suggests that the meaning of ‘the Osiris of’ a dead person was ‘the form that an individual acquired as a result of the rites of mummification and justification’, at the end of which ‘they could be said to possess an Osiris-aspect’, an ‘Osirian form’ unique to each individual and not to be directly identified with the god Osiris.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wsjr  

wsjr	wsjr	wsjr	wsjr	wsr	wsjr	wsr	wsjr
				[Coffin Texts]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of wsjr  

wsjr	wsjr	wsjr	wsjr	wsjr	wꜣsjr	wsr	wsr	wsr
[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[18th Dynasty]	[19th–20th Dynasty]	[Late Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]
		in hieratic	in hieratic

Derived terms

• mswt-wsjr

Descendants

• → Akkadian: (𒁍)𒅆𒊒 (/⁠-uširu⁠/) in 𒌷𒁍𒅆𒊒 (^ālupu-ši-ru), 𒍜 (/⁠-šir⁠/) in 𒁹𒁍𒋾𒍜 (^lpu-ti-šir₄)
• → Ancient Greek: Ὄσιρις (Ósiris), Ὕσιρις (Húsiris)
  • → English: Osiris
  • → Latin: Osīris
• → Aramaic: אוֹסרי, אסרי, אסר-, -וסרי, -סרי
• Demotic: wsjr, Ουσιρι (Ousiri), Ουσορ- (Ousor-)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲓ (ousiri)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲟⲩⲥⲓⲣⲉ (ousire)
• → Meroitic: 𐦠𐦯𐦣𐦫𐦢 (asori /⁠asuri/, /usuri⁠/)
• → Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎𐤓 (ʾsr)
• → Thamudic: 𐩦𐩧 (-śr) in 𐩱𐩨𐩵𐩦𐩧 (ʿbdśr)

References

• “Wsjr (lemma ID 49460)” and “Wsjr (lemma ID 49461)”, 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, page 359.5
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 68
• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 148, 361.