jwf

Egyptian

Etymology

Compare Tashelhit tifiyyi (“flesh, meat”), and Iraqw fuʔuni (“meat”).

Pronunciation

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): (singular) /ˈjuwfVw/ → /ˈjuwfVw/ → /ˈʔuʔfə/ → /ʔøʔf/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2350 BCE) IPA^(key): (singular) /ˈjuwfVw/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): (singular) /ˈjuwfVw/

  where V represents an unknown short vowel.

• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): (singular) /ˈʔuʔfə/
• (Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): (singular) /ʔøʔf/

 

• (reconstructed) IPA^(key): (plural) /jawˈfaːwaw/ → /jawˈfaːwaw/ → /ʔaˈfaːjə/ → /ʔaˈfoːj/

• (Old Egyptian, c. 2350 BCE) IPA^(key): (plural) /jawˈfaːwaw/
• (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA^(key): (plural) /jawˈfaːwaw/
• (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA^(key): (plural) /ʔaˈfaːjə/
• (Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA^(key): (plural) /ʔaˈfoːj/

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /iuːf/
  • Conventional anglicization: iuf

Noun

 m

1. flesh
2. (as food) meat, including fish meat

   ― j(w)f n(j) ḥꜣt ― breast meat

   ― ḥꜣt j(w)f ― breast meat

   ― j(w)f n(j) pḥwj ― meat from the hindquarters; ham

   ― wr n(j) j(w)f ― large piece or quantity of meat

   • c. 1900 BCE, The Instructions of Kagemni (pPrisse/pBN 183) lines 1.9–1.10:

     (j)m ꜣtw r jwf r gs skn šzp dj.f n.k

     Don’t raven after meat next to a voracious man; partake when he gives to you.

3. body
4. epithet of the god Ra when he passes through the afterworld at night [Netherworld Books]
5. (with following genitive) body, corpse (of some particular god) [Netherworld Books]

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of jwf  

jf	jf	jwf	jwf	jwf	jf	jwf	jwf
[Old Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[18th Dynasty]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Netherworld Books; Greco-Roman Period]	[Greco-Roman Period]

Derived terms

• ꜥt-jwf

Descendants

• Demotic Egyptian: jwf
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲉϥ (ef)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲁϥ (af)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲁⲁϥ (aaf)
  • Coptic Dialect K: ⲉϥ (ef)
  • Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲉϥ (ef)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲁⲁϥ (aaf), ⲁϥ (af)

References

• “jwf (lemma ID 22520)” and “jwf (lemma ID 500729)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[1], Corpus issue 20, Web app version 2.5.0, ed. by Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning […] and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils […], 2004–23 April 2026
• Erman, Adolf; Grapow, Hermann (1926), Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 51.14–52.5
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962), A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 13, 17
• James P[eter] Allen (2010), Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 279, 378.