šꜣwꜣbtj

Egyptian

Etymology

Perhaps from šwꜣb (“persea (tree)”) +‎ -t +‎ -j, with persea perhaps being the material they were originally made from. The Late Period form wšbtj is apparently reshaped by folk etymology from wšb (“to answer”) +‎ -t +‎ -j, thus literally ‘answerer’.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /ʃɑuːɑbti/
  • Conventional anglicization: shauabti

Noun

 m

1. ushabti [since the Book of the Dead]

Inflection

Declension of šꜣwꜣbtj (masculine)

singular	šꜣwꜣbtj
dual	šꜣwꜣbtjwj
plural	šꜣwꜣbtjw

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of šꜣwꜣbtj  

šꜣbtj	šꜣbtj	šꜣbtj	šꜣbtj	šꜣwꜣbtj	šꜣwbtj	wšbtj	wšbṯj
						[Late Period]	[Late Period]

Descendants

• → English: shawabti, shabti, ushabti
• → German: Uschebti

References

• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[1], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, page 373
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1930) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 4, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 435.15–435.16
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 263