Egyptian Dreams

Dampwater

I just wanted to know where the word Egypt came from?? , i mean what is the derivative of Egypt or what made westerners call it that way. Egyptians call Egypt "Masr" or "Misr", and i think the ancient Egyptians called it kmt, im not sure about that, but i am sure that it was translanted to the land of dark soil.
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isisinacrisis · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 7:15 pm Post subject:

I've heard that it's a Greek word, but that it's actually a translation of an egyptian word, or something...
Never knew about Masr though. That's new to me. I've heard of Kemet, someone even mentioned it being called Tamara or something, but I'm not sure about that.
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Psusennes · Citizen Joined: 12 Dec 2004 Posts: 84

It came originally from 'Ha(t)-ka-ptah' (the dwelling of Ptah), which was one of the main districts of Memphis. This name was passed through the Persian corruption- 'Hikupta', and then to the Ancient Greek 'Aigyptos'. One of the first appearances of the Greek word is in Herodotus' Histories, which I am studying in Ancient Greek at school. Then it came through the mediaeval french word 'Egypte' to modern English.

And the Ancient Egyptians called Egypt 'Kemet'. That is derived from 'kem', which means black. and then a '-t' is added so that it agrees with the symbol at the end of the word, which means kingdom, city or province. So it means 'black land', which is an allusion to the fertile black soil of Egypt. They called the desert 'deshret', the red land, for a similar reason- because it was a reddish colour. I don't want to go into the 'dark' mechanics of this word though (otherwise this forum will end up like EgyptSearch ... God help those people).

Hope that helps- Dampwater Smile

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Ba er peret! Sat er ta! Maa-i ba-i kaibit-i!

Dampwater · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:08 pm Post subject:

hikupta to aigyptos is pretty wide man, r u sure this is where egypt is derived from Question

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Men fear time, but time fears the Pyramids.

isisinacrisis · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 8:58 pm Post subject:

Dampwater · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:08 pm Post subject:

^^^^
ok, look, obviously Kemet doesnt mean that ancient Egyptians were black, in the pictures they were brown, or light brown, like me, i'm Egyptian, i'm light brown. Kemet doesnt refer to the black people of Egypt, it refers to the black of the fertile, nutrition filled soil that was the basis for Egyptian prosperity. So, EGYPT IS NOT BLACK, its African, but its not black, maybe people from Kush were black, but they weren't Egyptians.

I was simply questioning where are the origins of Egypt, the word, cuz here we call our country Misr, so i just thought that it would be only appropriate for foreigners to call us Misr, or a foreignized version of it, like it is to other countries. Unless there are ancient origins to the word Egypt, in which case i want to know what it means.
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Men fear time, but time fears the Pyramids.

Kevin · Posted: Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:24 pm Post subject:

anneke · Queen of Egypt Joined: 23 Jan 2004 Posts: 9305

kmt_sesh · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 1:46 am Post subject:

kmt_sesh · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 2:44 am Post subject:

I forgot to ask. You folks were discussing EgyptSearch. I'm not familiar with it. What's EgyptSearch all about?

isisinacrisis · Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2004 9:25 am Post subject:

I thought the greeks got Thoth from Tehuti...didn't the greeks give their own names to Isis, Osiris and the rest too?

Egyptsearch is another forum, but there the members tend to post a bit too many topics about ancient egyptian 'race' and most of the posts turn into long winded arguments saying that they are 'black'. Now the race of the Egyptians is still debatable (I myself believe they were pretty mixed, but basically various shades of brown-that's what i think. It's possible there were some 'blacks' from the nubians and such.) but these people at that forum take these things too seriously and it's got really out of hand. I would never join that forum-the people there scare me.
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kmt_sesh · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 2:39 am Post subject:

Even if the Greeks heard "Tehuti" when the Egyptians said "Djehuty," it still seems odd that it turned into Thoth. It's not even close. For that matter it's not even the right number of syllables, unless the Egyptians were given to calling the god "Djet" or "Djut." Sorry, that's my mind wandering...

You're right about many of the other gods. "Isis" comes from "Aset" or "Uset" and "Osiris" from "Asir" or "Usir." My own favorite Egyptian god is Anubis, which the Egyptians spoke as "Inpu" or "Inepu." "Horus" was originally "Hor" and "Hathor" was "Hwt-Hor" (literally "the Mansion of Horus" or "the Palace of Horus"). Those are just some examples. I think a lot of the changes in vocabularly had to do with Greek suffixes, but I must admit I don't speak a word of Greek, except for "gyros," which I like to have for lunch (Greek really is Greek to me!).

I guess that EgyptSearch forum sounds like too much of a downer for me. Everyone there sounds like they're trying to make things too political. Not my kind of place. We know for a fact that the Egyptians were a mixture of people, many Semitics and many blacks. It's sad and immature when someone tries to turn one of the most magnificant ancient civilizations into a tool to service their own race-related agenda. I don't think I'll be visiting EgyptSearch. Egyptian Dreams is much better.

Psusennes · Citizen Joined: 12 Dec 2004 Posts: 84

Psusennes · Citizen Joined: 12 Dec 2004 Posts: 84

Oh- I learn Greek at school by the way. It's great!
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Ba er peret! Sat er ta! Maa-i ba-i kaibit-i!

kmt_sesh · Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:50 pm Post subject:

Well, it certainly helps to have someone with an understanding of Greek. I'm not sure I'm completely convinced yet, or perhaps I missed something. After all, it's a three-syllable word reduced to a single-syllable sound.

But then again, the Egyptians did the same thing when trying to pronounce Greek names and words, so in that light it makes sense.

Never mind. Thanks for pointing that out, Psusennes.