mjw

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Egyptian

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Other romanization schemes
Manuel de Codage miw
Gardiner 1927 mꞽw
Erman & Grapow 1926 mjw
Lepsius 1874 (obsolete) mȧu
miiwF27
(the Gayer-Anderson cat)

Etymology 1

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Most likely onomatopoeic, from the animal’s cry (meow). Compare Chinese (māo), Lao ແມວ (mǣu).

Other hypotheses connect it to Proto-Afroasiatic *m-r or *m-l, the former on the basis of Alagwa mariy-amo (wild cat), Lamé Ngete mēr (serval) and méríán (wild cat), Pévé merian (wild cat, serval), Zime-Dari Pévé mīēr (genette), and the latter on the basis of Musgu ámíl (African civet), Bedanga Sokoro melā (cat). Either one of these could also be plausibly connected with the ancestor of Egyptian mꜣj (lion).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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miiwE13

 m

  1. (male) cat; tomcat
    • c. 332-30 BCE, Book of the Dead of Iuefankh, chapter 17, lines 45-46 (pTurin Museo Egizio 1791):
      nw
      k
      Z1miiwE13p
      f
      iiaA
      a
      Y1
      n
      t y
      Hr Z1
      p
      S
      t Z1
      iS
      d
      M1r
      Aa16 Z1
      f
      im
      iwnnw
      niwt
      g
      r
      HwN2ra Z1 p
      f
      iin
      aHA
      Z9
      D40
      a
      Z1
      ir
      t
      A47AWD40sbiw

      A13
      Z2
      h
      r
      wra Z1 p
      f
      iinH st mgbt
      nDs
      x&f&t A14
      Z2
      nw Z1
      nb
      Dr
      r
      A40imf
      jnk mjw pfy ꜥꜣ ntj ḥr p(s)št jšd r-gs.f m jwnw grḥ pfy n(j) ꜥḥꜣ-ꜥ(w) jrt zꜣw(t) sbjw
      hrw pfy n(j) ḥtmt ḫftjw nw nb-(r)-ḏr jm.f
      I am that great tomcat beside whom the desert date tree was split in Heliopolis on that night of battle and the guarding of rebels,
      on that day on which the enemies of the Lord of All were destroyed.
Inflection
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Alternative forms
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Derived terms
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  • mjwt (female cat)
Descendants
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  • English: Mau

Etymology 2

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From mj (like) +‎ -w.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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miiw

 m

  1. likeness
Inflection
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Derived terms
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References

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  • Takács, Gábor (2007) “mj.w & mj.t”, in Etymological Dictionary of Egyptian, volume 3, Leiden: Brill, →ISBN, page 134, →ISBN
  • James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 376.