An Etymologist's look at Egyptian Mythology.

Continuing on after my recent course on ancient languages, I thought it would be interesting to examine a selection of Egyptian mythological figures and examine the etymologies for their names.

Amun is the sun-god and his name means simply 'hidden'.

Anubis is actually the Greek rendering of the Egyptian name Anpu or Inpu which is said to be 'a royal child' and from a root meaning 'to decay' (no, neither can I see that link). The god is known by several titles, including First of the Westerners; Lord of the Sacred Land; He Who is Upon His Sacred Mountain; Ruler of the Nine Bows; Master of Secrets; He Who is in the Place of Learning; Foremost of the Divine Booth; and The Dog who Swallows Millions.

Horus is rendered in hieroglyphs as 'falcon', although etymologists also suggest his name means 'the distant one' or 'one who is above'.

Osiris is a Latin Translation of the Greek rendering of the original Egyptian, where the name is wsjr. This could be 'the Mighty One'; 'seat of the eye', 'something made', 'she who bears the eye', 'to make', or 'engendering male principle'. These varied explanations are down to the Egyptian hieroglyphs lacking vowels in translation - you can see the problems, for if the same applied in English it would be difficult to know if the word was net, nit, not, or nut.

Shu means either 'emptiness' or 'she who rises up'.

Sobek, the crocodile god, is the Egyptian for 'to impregnate'.

Bat is a cow goddess, whose name has the suffix 't', to represent a female, following the name Ba which seems to refer to 'the soul'.

Nut is thought to be named for her place of residence, as it probably translates as 'sky'.

Tefnut is a god of moisture and dew and rain, and some think the name (which has no suggestable etymology) is the onomatopoeia of the sound of spitting - this has nothing to do with the moisture aspect, but a reference to the mythological birth of this god when another god spat and created Tefnut and his sister. There is an alternative suggestion to spitting featuring other bodily fluids, but we'll gloss over that.

Nu is derived from nen 'inactivity', if it comes from Egyptian, or it could be Coptic noun 'abyss, deep'.

Amenhotep translates as 'Amun is satisfied'. Just why he was satisfied is extremely complicated and I lost interest halfway through reading.

Baal is from the Greek, previously linked to many Semitic languages such as Ugaritic, Phoenician, Hebrew, Amorite, and Aramaic, and which probably means 'owner', understood as 'lord'.

Imhotep translates as 'the one who came in peace'.

Tutu means 'image', although he's also known as 'Son of Neith', 'the lion', 'great of strength', and Master of the demons of Sekhmet and the wandering demons of Bastet'.

Conspiracy Theories

Daffodils share 35% of their genetic makeup with humans. I would point out that I have relatives where that figure must be closer to 95%, but that would mean having to listen to the numerous complaints (from the daffodils, of course), so I shall keep quiet.

It was one of the daffodils, I mean relatives, who voiced their belief that mankind had never made it to the Moon, the whole thing was faked. When I asked what evidence they had to substantiate this claim, I was told "Well, one in six people don't believe it!"

If the validity of such theories simply requires a small minority to believe them to be true, then perhaps this is all we need for the following to be true:

Contrails left by high-flying aircraft are deliberately laden with chemicals and biological agents to make us ill is believed by one in six.

Coca-Cola changed their recipe for their most successful product in 1985 - known as New Coke - to make it more addictive, at the same time using cheaper and inferior ingredients.

Paul McCartney died in a car accident in 1966. His replacement, Scottish orphan William Shears Cambell, has been fooling the world ever since.

Elvis Presley, Lord Lucan, and Shergar are alive and well and living beneath the main stand of Leinster Rugby Club. Elvis may also be alive and well and living on the Moon with Adolf Hitler. Although if the idea that Hitler is living in Antarctica or South America is true, Elvis may have difficulty finding him, even though even Elvis might be able to run faster as Hitler would now be 132 years of age.

Many theories surround the New World Order - the idea takes too long to explain, but basically involves a select elite taking over after having destroyed civilization as we know it - one being their headquarters is a massive futuristic city buried beneath Denver International Airport. Among those who are convinced this is true are Beyonce, Whitney Houston, and perennial nutcase David Icke (yes, he was the one who suggested he was the second coming).

Israelis have enlisted some animals to conduct espionage and eliminate people. Apparently Israeli-trained sharks have been eating people off Egypt, Hezbollah has trained spying eagles as aerial spies, and in 2011 an eagle was captured and found to be carrying a satellite tracking device.

An astonishing number accept the idea that former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hilary Clinton have conspired to assassinate more than fifty of their associates.

Fluoride in water to help with dental problems has been seen as a communist plot to weaken the decadent west and also a way to dispose of industrial waste.

Vaccination causes autism, this claimed by discredited former doctor Andrew Wakefield. Such luminaries as Rob Schneider, Jim Carrey, and Donald Trump have expressed their belief in this theory.

Flat Earth Theory suggests the idea that the planet is anything other than flat is faked. This includes rigging pilots GPS devices to make them think they are flying around the globe.

Thirty

A little change this time and, to mark this the 30th birthday of my Jonathan, some facts about the number 30.

A polygon with thirty sides is a triacontagon. Adding all the internal angles, each of 168 degrees, totals 5040 degrees.

There are thirty major and minor keys in music.

It is a Harshad number, or a number divisible by the sum of its digits. Also known as a Niven number, the term Harshad was coined by D. R. Kaprekar and comes from the Sanskrit harsa 'joy' and give 'give and thus 'to give joy', while the alternative Niven Number remembers a paper delivered by Canadian-born mathematician Ivan M. Niven in 1977.

There are thirty upright stones forming the Sarsen Circle at Stonehenge.

Cats have just 30 teeth, 16 in the upper jaw and 14 in the lower.

In binary code 11110 is thirty, in French trente, Basque Hogeita hamar, Bosnian trideset, Catalan trenta, Croatian trideset, Danish tredive, Dutch dertig, Hungarian harminc, Irish triocha, Italian trenta, Norwegian tretti, Portuguese trinta, Romanian treizeci, Slovenian trideset, Spanish treinta, Swedish trettio, and Welsh deg ar hugain.

The 30th wedding anniversary is the Pearl Anniversary. Originally only silver and gold were marked, a tradition coming from Roman times, but over the years all manner of oddities have been added.

The atomic number of zinc is 30. It is the fourth most commonly used metal - after iron, aluminium and copper - over 50% of which is used as a rust-proof coating. It has been said to help prevent the common cold, although the side effects of bad breath and nausea may be worse than the cold itself.

The 30th November is Computer Security Day. Beginning in 1988 it is when computer vulnerabilities are highlighted.

The 30th president of the United States of America was Calvin Coolidge, the 30th UK prime minister was William Lamb serving his second term from 1835 to 1841.

A recent list of the world's richest people listed Elon Musk at number 30 with a net worth of $22.8 billion.

In area the 30th largest country in the world in Egypt, but by population that ranking goes to Spain.

The 30th person in space was Richard Gordon on Gemini 11, launched 12th September 1966. Like Michael Collins before him, he was the one left in orbit around the moon when the other two went for a walk on the Apollo 12 mission.

The 30th football club to win the English title were Liverpool, the 30th FA Cup Final Nottingham Forest, and the 30th League Cup Final Nottingham Forest.

Egypt Place Names Explained

Having blogged samples of my books on English place names and also examined the etymologies of the nations of the world and their respective capitals I thought it time to cast my net a little wider. This time Egypt and a look at some of its largest settlements and most interesting names and starting with the capital.

Cairo is not only the capital but also one of the largest and oldest of places. Fittingly the name is most interesting. Egyptians will often refer to the place as Masr, the local name for the country and emphasising the importance of the place. Officially the city is known in Arabic as al-Qahirah meaning literally 'the defeater' which is said to be a shortened version of the original name Al Najm Al Qahir and refers to the planet Mars rising at the time of the city's founding. Yet we also see this interpreted as 'the vanquisher' or 'the victorious', here said to refer to Caliph al-Mu'izz Ii Din Allah, he arriving here in 973; as Khere-Ohe and meaning 'the place of combat' and said to be a reminder of the battle between the Egyptian gods Seth and Horus; and we also find a reference to the place as Umm ad-Dunya or 'the mother of the world'.

Alexandria, unlike Cairo, has the simplest of names to define - as many will know it remembers its founder, Alexander the Great. Yet this was not the first settlement here, before 331BC the city of Rhakotis already existed here and referred to 'that which is built up' and continues as a region in the current city.

Giza is a famous nam and a simplistic albeit informative one. The name comes from gaza meaning 'to cross' and tells this is a good place to cross the Nile.

Shubra is a city of three million people, yet the place name comes from the Coptic word Sopro meaning either 'a small village' or possibly 'a small field'.

Port Said first appeared in 1855 and chosen by a committee. That committee, featuring representatives from Great Britain, France, Austria, Russia, Spain and Piedmont, came up with the obvious 'port' (although originally it signified 'a market') adding the name of the (then) Egyptian ruler Sa'id.

Suez, better known as the name of the canal, is found almost on the same site as a town named Kolzum in the 7th century. This town stood at the eastern terminus of a canal linking the Nile to the Red Sea built by Amr ibn al-'As. From 770, when the canal had closed to prevent access by enemies, the town's fortunes dropped but continued to act as a trading post between Egypt and Arabia. The name Kolzum is an Arabic form of the earlier Greek klysma meaning literally 'wash, rinse out' and a reference to a river or some water course taking away the town's detritus - hence this early place name referred to its sewage system. When the town of Suez grew nearby it became known from the Arabic as-suways meaning 'beginning' and a reference to the port being at the head of the Red Sea.

Luxor comes from the Arabic al-'uqsur and describes 'the palaces'. There is some evidence to suggest this may be a loanword from Latin castra meaning 'fortifications'. Luxor is not its original name, this famous archaeological site previously known as Thebes. This earlier name has been influenced by both Roman and Greek culture and known as Thebae and Thebai respectively and coming from ta ipet or 'the shrine' and earlier known as waset or 'city of the sceptre'.

Mansoura was named to mark the Egyptian victory over Louis IX of France in the Seventh Crusade, its name means 'victorious'.

Asyut is derived from the earlier Egyptian Zawty and ultimately from a name meaning 'wolf city'.

Faiyum is ultimately from the Coptic ep'iom meaning 'the sea or lake' and a reference to nearby Lake Moeris. The name of the lake comes from the Egyptian mer-wer and means 'great canal'. Because its fossils have been found here, Faiyum has given its name to a species of early elephant which went extinct some 30 million years ago - the genus Phiomia serridens meaning 'the saw-toothed animal of Faiyum'.

Aswan is a name most often associated with the dam, however it is also a city and an ancient one. Originally it was known as Swenett, itself from an Egyptian goddess of the same name. She was associated with childbirth and, with the Nile flowing north and Egypt beginning at Swenett, both were seen as 'the opener'. This is also said to be derived from the ancient Egyptian symbol for trade and/or market - and likely both meanings have a common root.

Minya has its roots in Sahidic Coptic Timoone and Bohairic Thome, both meaning 'the residence'.

Damanhur is the modern form of Dmi en Hor or 'the city of the god Horus'. Later the Greeks called it Hermou Polis Mikra or 'the lesser city of Hermes', while the Romans knew it as Apollonopolis to refer to the god Apollo.

Note the spellings of the places are English as the piece is written in English.