ꜣḫf

Egyptian

Etymology

Gardiner hypothesizes a relation with ꜣḫfḫf (“to blaze (of the eyes)”), for which compare also ḫfꜣj (“to illuminate”). Federn, following a different interpretation of the word, contrarily proposes a connection with ḫfꜣt (“food”), ḫfꜣ (“to fill with, to be swelled with”), and ḫfḫf.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ɑxɛf/
  • Conventional anglicization: akhef

Noun

 m

1. (hapax) The meaning of this term is uncertain. Possibilities include:
   1. burning appetite
      • c. 1900 BCE, The Instructions of Kagemni (pPrisse/pBN 183) lines 1.7–1.8:

        jr ḥms.k ḥnꜥ ꜣfꜥ wnm.k ꜣḫf.f swꜣ(.w)

        If you sit with a glutton, you should eat when his burning appetite has passed.

   2. condition of the body and mind after eating a great deal, surfeit

Derived terms

• ꜣḫfḫf

 

References

• “ꜣḫf (lemma ID 256)”, 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 19.4
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 5
• Gardiner, Alan (1946) “Instruction Addressed to Kagemni and His Brethren” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, volume 32, page 73, note 6
• Federn, Walter (1950) “Notes on the Instruction to Kagemni and His Brethren” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, volume 36, page 48