mḏd

See also: mdd, MDD, and m ḏd

Egyptian

Etymology

The proper noun is derived from the participle of the verb, thus perhaps meaning ‘the one who hits the mark’, ‘the true-striking’.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛd͡ʒɛd/
  • Conventional anglicization: medjed

Verb

 3-lit.

1. (transitive) to physically strike (someone or something) with an arrow or spear
2. (transitive) to physically strike with (an arrow or spear) [Late Period]
3. (intransitive, in fixed expressions) to hit the target when shooting arrows [New Kingdom]
4. (transitive, of fire) to meet (someone) [Pyramid Texts and Late Period]
5. (transitive) to drive in (a stake or pale) [19th Dynasty]
6. (transitive) to symbolically drive an implement, originally one’s little finger, into (the mouth) of the deceased in the Opening of the Mouth ritual
7. (transitive) to press hard on, as if to drive in
8. (transitive) to obey, to follow (an order)
9. (transitive) to practise (a virtue)
10. (transitive) to follow, to stay true to (a path)
11. (transitive) to distribute, to share out to the proper target
12. (transitive) to impose (something) as a duty in the form of corvee labor or taxes [Old Kingdom]

Inflection

Conjugation of mḏd (triliteral / 3-lit. / 3rad.) — base stem: mḏd, geminated stem: mḏdd

infinitival forms			imperative
infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1	singular	plural
mḏd	mḏdw, mḏd	mḏdt	mḏd	mḏd

‘pseudoverbal’ forms
stative stem	periphrastic imperfective2		periphrastic prospective2
mḏd	ḥr mḏd	m mḏd	r mḏd

suffix conjugation
aspect / mood	active	passive	contingent
			aspect / mood	active	passive
perfect	mḏd.n	mḏdw, mḏd	consecutive	mḏd.jn	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
terminative	mḏdt
perfective3	mḏd	active + .tj1, .tw2	obligative1	mḏd.ḫr	active + .tj1, .tw2
imperfective	mḏd	active + .tj1, .tw2
prospective3	mḏd	mḏdd	potentialis1	mḏd.kꜣ	active + .tj1, .tw2
		active + .tj1, .tw2
subjunctive	mḏd	active + .tj1, .tw2

verbal adjectives
aspect / mood	relative (incl. nominal / emphatic) forms		participles
	active	passive	active	passive
perfect	mḏd.n	active + .tj1, .tw2	—	—
perfective	mḏd	active + .tj1, .tw2	mḏd	mḏd, mḏdw5, mḏdy5
imperfective	mḏd, mḏdy, mḏdw5	active + .tj1, .tw2	mḏd, mḏdj6, mḏdy6	mḏd, mḏdw5
prospective	mḏd, mḏdtj7	—	mḏdtj4, mḏdt4
Used in Old Egyptian; archaic by Middle Egyptian. Used mostly since Middle Egyptian. Archaic or greatly restricted in usage by Middle Egyptian. The perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective, and the subjunctive and periphrastic prospective have mostly replaced the prospective. Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, dual .sn/.snj, plural .sn. Only in the masculine singular. Only in the masculine. Only in the feminine.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḏd  

mḏd	mḏd	mḏd	mḏd	mḏd	mḏ
		[Old Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]
abbreviation	abbreviation		in hieratic

Derived terms

• wd-r-mḏd
• mḏdw
• mḏd wꜣt
• mḏd mṯn
• mḏd-r-nbtj
• mḏdt
• r mḏdw n jb n
• rnpt-mḏd-ꜥ
• st-r-mḏd

 

Noun

 m

1. dues or obligations in the form of corvee labor or taxes [Old Kingdom]

Inflection

Declension of mḏd (masculine)

singular	mḏd
dual	mḏdwj
plural	mḏdw

Proper noun

m-a-D:d-Aa24

 m

1. Medjed, a minor god mentioned in the Book of the Dead
   • c. 1478 BCE – 1397 BCE, Book of the Dead of Nu (pLondon British Museum EA 10477) chapter 17, lines 76–79:

     
     
     
     

     nn hꜣy.j r ktwt.sn ḥr ntt {t}wj rḫ.kw st rḫ.kw mḏd pwy jmj.sn n(j) pr-wsjr stt m jrt.f nj mꜣ.n.tw.f pẖr.n pt m ns(rt) n(j) rꜣ.f smj ḥꜥpj nj mꜣ.n.tw.f

     I will not fall into their cauldron, for I know it, and I know of that Medjed among them of the House of Osiris who shoots from his eye without being able to be seen, with the flame of whose mouth the sky is encircled, whom Hapi announces without his being able to be seen.

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḏd  

mḏd	mḏd	mḏd
[New Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Saite Period]

Descendants

• → English: Medjed
  • → Japanese: メジェド (Mejedo)

References

• “mḏd (lemma ID 78770)”, “mḏd (lemma ID 78780)”, and “mḏd (lemma ID 78850)”, 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 (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[2], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 191.14–192.9, 192.14
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 124
• Leitz, Christian, Budde, Dagmar, Dils, Peter, Goldbrunner, Lothar, Mendel, Daniela (2002) Christian Leitz, editor, Lexikon der ägyptischen Götter und Götterbezeichnungen, volumes 3: p–nbw, Leuven: Peeters, page 476
• Baud, Michel (1998) “Une épithète de Rêdjedef et la prétendue tyrannie de Chéops. Étude sur la statuaire de Rêdjedef, II.” in Le Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, volume 98, pages 15–30