Egypt Exploration Society

The Expression T[unknown]C Author(s): Alan H. Gardiner Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 26 (Feb., 1941), pp. 158-159 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3854540 Accessed: 11/03/2010 08:23
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way Late-Egyptian words beginningwith U have to be read with initial m, not me, but Gunn - x 'twist' (of arms and tx *a--octt:::ad), and ]'be successful' for old quotes as exceptions x.tw ar.s \ ^-un legs^ y U `t a x. The writing i [j c in the Adoption papyrus makes it impossible to legs), var. X dissociatethat word from one used as a measurefor the fruit of the date-palmin the great Harris . with the variants 3 ( ~ q papyrus; in 37a, 5, of that papyrus the spellingis T,h, b L Ce x in 54a, 10; the word for 'date' precedesin all three in 21b, 2, and I examples, and a numberfollows. This word is treated by Wb.II. 186 (15) under the rubricmd?,and the meaning assignedis Art Massfiir Datteln;for the mistakenreadingmd?there is the reasonthat Wb.quotes k from Nelson, Karnak, 108B, 27, where the photograph shows that no -- can ever have L= been present. It is impossibleto do otherwisethan to regardthis Karnak variant as a mistake, revealsin its Vokalbrechung an undeniablehint of the readingm(d;. especiallyas the Coptic j&aaase It was possiblyon accountof the Vokalbrechung that the Berlin dictionarydid not identify eaawe with the wordin the Harrispapyrus,though there is the additionalreasonthat JaaUe, a measure of capacity for dry goods, as Crum, Copt. Diet., 213, indicates, is used of much else besides dates, in connexionwith which only one exampleis quoted. Brugsch,Aegyptologie, 380, 381, seems the originalsourceof the equation of m%di with the Greekt,daTov; Crumsays that twelve tUaaXeP. Heidelb.738, which he transcribes f_
sOOvLKV77tyV.1

measures went to the epTo1, dpTardB]. For Uaase Spiegelberg, Hdwb., 71, quotes a demotic example conclusion, it seems significant that the Greek papyri speak of a special measure named uetpov

'7 ,.;

this it has been impossibleto verify. In

Thoughthe Berlin Dictionaryhad somereasonfor readingmd1and for missingthe identification with xaa&se,the peculiarities of its furthertreatmentare less venial. An importantexampleis overlooked in the GolenischeffOnomasticon(3, 1), where the 1? I, 'maker ,. md.' of follows immediatelyupon the j i \\ , the 'date-man', perhaps a vendor or cultivator of dates. It is odd that Wb.,II, 186 (16, 17) should have separatedfrom the word in Harristhat found in the Graeco-Roman 'mcd of dates'; the vignettes in Edfu, I, expressions e 'r PI. 35a = I, p. 471, and Mar., Dend., II, 42, a, b show this md& as an offeringin the shape of a shrine surmountedby a pyramidionbeing presented by the king to a deity. On the strength of these examples one is perhaps justified in conjecturingthat the med_was properly the sort of basket used for the date-conservecalled c in Arabic; of this Wilkinson(Mannersand Customs, ed. Birch, I, 398, n. 3) says: 'Agweh,or adjweh, is a mass of dates pressedand preservedin baskets, which are commonly sold in all the markets of modernEgypt.' Such baskets may have been of standardsize, so that they could well come to be used as a measure. Certainlythe determinatives of m(dfgo some way toward suggestinga basket of a certainshape and size as the originalmeaning of the word; in the vignettes and the determinative a there will be assimilationto a shrine of some kind, .C suggests comparisonwith the corn-measure, and ik is in agreementwith the notion of a containerof wicker-work or somethingof the kind. There remains the transition of meaning from 'basket for dates' to 'profit'. The metaphor dates were not the least valuable annual produceof the Egyptian agriculturalist. The expression Truncon
we employ in speaking of the 'fruit' of a man's labour (cf. also Kaprods,fructus) points the way;
ALAN H. GARDINER.

IN his review of Crum's Coptic Dictionary (JEA 25, 111) Polotsky has rightly discerned the meaning of this rare expression, but suggests what must, in my opinion, be a wrong etymology. He has seen 1 Schnebel, Landwirtschaft, p. 300, n. 1. Other terms used in Egyptian in connexion with the fruit of the date-palm are a % Harris 21b, 3, perhaps a cluster 'cut off', and _l 0 ib. 54a, 9 'jars of dried (dates)'. It must be realized that dates will have been marketed in different ways, both fresh and dry, and the latter either in the form described below or else ground up and made into a sweetmeat. Wb. comparesa word \\ ndc used of dates; this can have nothing to do with m(dj aase, and the brick-like determinative suggests the sweetmeats just alluded to.

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that in all known passages the sense 'at the moment in question' suits much better than the accepted rendering 'countless times', but I cannot follow him in his statement, 'It seems clear that the word must represent tnw zp "every time" ', to which he himself has expressed the main objection-' but the n is difficult to account for'. It is true that Crum (op. cit., 297) is able to quote three examples of as a variant of T pouJner, 'each year', where tnw is Tre.poutll Tppo e, potne clearly the origin of the first element, but I fancy that there the At must be due to assimilation to the iL of poiurte. I venture to suggest another explanation. All examples of TvuIconr that it is a free not adverbial expression, but that it is tacked on to a substantive or suggest substantive equivalent as an adjective or relative clause might be. This is well seen in the example from Kephalaia 38 -XeIpTortI& R(O JIU&.HC V.t [T2&fie tTepe n1tr& TLIIcnIt where exhibits the true Polotsky meaning by comparing the German 'der jeweils rrn&&p &q, Grossere'. How would Middle Egyptian have expressed this ? Clearly by > 1 + I m , 'the Great one who is in his time', cf. }1 ~ + * Now }l^ , 1-' , fT5 +x is synonymous with xx, in Coptic CTiu-, and 'the time' for 'his time' would be not + -1 unnatural. Consequently I conjecture that TAurttc& is simply a shortening of *eT,Iuca&n, the loss of the initial e being due to the expression having become stereotyped and to its etymology being forgotten. But I have no parallel for the abbreviation of eT- to T-. ALANH. GARDINER.

M-s, 'pestering'
THE idiomatic uses of m-s; with such meanings as 'tending', 'pursuing', 'persecuting' are well known. I have noted two examples in Late Egyptian where the preposition seems to convey a nuance of 'pestering' or 'importuning', a sense which has perhaps not been pointed out before. In P. Anast. VI, 17 ff., the writer complains about a steward Seba who has deprived him of his workpeople and yet is demanding their produce. The passage may be freely rendered: 'And he has taken away from me two more working-girls, saying: (18) "He has not delivered the work to the overseer of the treasury, and yet he goes so far as to stand and face me." And when they (19) ceased registering the weavers for me he set a man to pester me (iw.f 4r dit rmt m-st'i, lit. "he set a man after me"), saying: " Produce some of the weavers' work." ' The other passage is P. Bol. 1086, 17 (translated by Wolf in ZAS 65, 93). The writer, trying to find a Syrian, has got no satisfaction from visits to various high officials, and concludes tw?' m-s; p. hry-skt m mnt, 'I am importuning (lit. " after") the hry-skt every day, saying: " Produce the Syrian farmer belonging to the temple of Thoth, whom you have received .. ."' In both cases the sense of 'persecute' does not fit, and some such notion as 'pestering' seems inevitable.2 It is interesting to note that the sentence in oratio recta which follows begins in both ' which suits an importunate request well. cases with Q ? a 'Produce!', To be compared with this is a demotic use of m-s; in which (cf. Spiegelberg, Dem. Gr., 354) 'to be behind' comes to mean 'to compel'. A case closely resembling the Late-Egn. examples occurs in Col. A, line 11 of a very interesting demotic gardening contract published above in this Journal by Richard A. Parker. After instructions from mistress to gardener comes mtw.k tm dit hpr.y m-s8.k n-im.f, which Dr. Parker translates 'and you are not to cause me to compel you to do it', and which would admit a rendering 'you are not to make me pester you about it'. ALEC N. DAKIN.

1 ColloquialEnglish, of course, offers close parallels, e.g., for the sense 'tend', 'You can't always have your mother behind you' (or 'looking after you'), and for 'pester' cf. 'The boss is always after me to get this job done'. 2 The difference between 'pestering' and 'persecuting' is perhaps chiefly one of degree, the former stopping short of threats and violence; at the same time only the stronger party can 'persecute', while a fly could 'pester' and a widow was 'importunate'.