tm

See also: TM, Tm, .tm, t/m, and ™

Egyptian

Verb

2-lit.

1. (intransitive) to be complete
2. (transitive) to complete, to finish

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of tm  

tm

Inflection

Conjugation of tm (biliteral / 2-lit. / 2rad.) — base stem: tm, geminated stem: tmm

voice	aspect / mood	finite forms (all but the imperative can take suffix pronouns)				nonfinite
		relation to the context1			participles
		initial / absolute	non-initial / relative	contingent	relative form	participle
active	perfect	‘perfect’ tm.n		tm.jn	‘perfect’ tm.n	—
	perfective2	first person: use stative forms third person: ‘indicative’, ‘perfective’ tm	tmt		‘perfective’ tm	‘perfective’ tm
	unmarked (‘aorist’)	‘imperfective’ (including ‘circumstantial’) tm, j.tm		tm.ḫr	‘imperfective’ tm, j.tm, tmy, tmw9, j.tmw9	‘imperfective’ tm, j.tm, tmj10, tmy10
	periphrastic imperfective3	ḥr tm, m tm			—	—
	periphrastic prospective3	r tm			—	—
	optative	‘prospective’4 tm	—	tm.kꜣ	‘prospective’ tm, tmtj11	‘prospective’6 tmtj, tmt
	jussive	‘subjunctive’4 tm, j.tm			—	—
		‘imperative’ tm, j.tm	—		—	—
passive	perfect	‘perfect’ tm.n.tj7, tm.n.tw8	stative verbs: use stative forms5 dynamic verbs: ‘passive’5 tmw, tm	tm.jn.tj7, tm.jn.tw8	—	—
	perfective	‘indicative’, ‘perfective’ tm.tj7, tm.tw8	tmt		—	‘perfective’ tm, tmm, tmw9, tmy9, tmmj10,
	unmarked (‘aorist’)	‘imperfective’ (including ‘circumstantial’) j.tm.tj7, tm.tw8, j.tm.tw8		tm.ḫr.tj7, tm.ḫr.tw8	—	‘imperfective’ tm, tmw9
	optative	‘prospective’4 tmm		tm.kꜣ.tj7, tm.kꜣ.tw8	—	‘prospective’6 tmtj, tmt
	jussive	‘subjunctive’4 j.tm.tj7, tm.tw8, j.tm.tw8			—	—
1   In Old Egyptian, this is primarily based on the semantic context; in Middle Egyptian, it has changed to be primarily syntactic. 2   Archaic or greatly restricted in usage in Middle Egyptian, where the perfect has mostly taken over the functions of the perfective. 3   These forms only exist starting with the late Old Kingdom. Suffix pronouns attach to a preceding particle (often jw). 4   In Middle Egyptian, the opposition between the prospective and subjunctive has changed from a modal opposition (optative vs. jussive) to a syntactic opposition (initial vs. dependent), with the morphology of the new subjunctive combining features of both Old Egyptian paradigms. 5   In Old Egyptian, the stative is introduced by a topicalized subject and used with stative verbs, while the passive form is used as an independent verb phrase with dynamic verbs. In Middle Egyptian, the distinction has changed so that the stative is used with pronominal subjects while the passive form is used with nominal subjects. 6   Declines using third-person suffix pronouns instead of adjectival endings: masculine .f/.fj, feminine .s/.sj, plural .sn. 7   Old Egyptian form. 8   Middle Egyptian form. 9   Only in the masculine singular. 10   Only in the masculine. 11   Only in the feminine.

Verbal nouns

infinitive	negatival complement	complementary infinitive1
tm	tmw, tm	tmt
1   Archaic in Middle Egyptian.

Personal endings

	number	first person	second person		third person
			masculine	feminine	masculine	feminine
with suffix pronouns	singular	tm.j	tm.k	tm.ṯ	tm.f	tm.s
	dual	tm.nj	tm.ṯnj		tm.snj
	plural	tm.n	tm.ṯn		tm.sn
stative forms	singular	tm.kj1, tm.kw2	tm.tj		tm(.j)1, tm(.w)2	tm.tj
	dual	—	tm.twnj		tm.wjj	tm.tjj
	plural	tm.w(j)n	tm.tw(j)n		tm.wj	tm.tj, tm.wj2
1   Old Egyptian form. 2   Middle Egyptian form.

Noun

 m

1. everything, totality, completion

Inflection

Declension of tm (masculine)

singular	tm
dual	tmwj
plural	tmw

Derived terms

Terms derived from tm

• nb-tm

Proper noun

 m

1. the god Atum

Alternative forms

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of tm  

			Aa56
tm	jtm	tmw	jtm
[Middle Kingdom]	[Middle Kingdom]	[New Kingdom]	[Late Period]

Based on the forms jtm and tmw, some authors interpret the god’s name as jtmw, a noun of action derived from the verb tm (“to finish, complete”), thus literally meaning ‘the finisher’; however, the most common writings of the name only explicitly show the consonants tm.

Derived terms

• pr-tm

References

• Erman, Adolf; Grapow, Hermann (1926-1961) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, ISBN 3050022647
• Allen, James (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, second edition, revised, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-74144-6, page 147