The

Egyptian hieroglyph Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs ( ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined ideographic, logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with more than 1,000 distinct characters. ...

serves as a phonogram representing the triliteral consonant sequence ', and appears in Gardiner's sign list as number F35. It appears in the Egyptian word for "perfect, complete" (with the extended meanings of "good, pleasant, well, beautiful"), which has a reconstructed pronunciation of according to Loprieno. The hieroglyph has a conventional Egyptological vocalization of '.

Form and appearance

The triliteral Egyptian hieroglyph F35 ('nfr') has sometimes been explained as a representation of a

lute A lute ( or ) is any plucked string instrument with a neck (music), neck and a deep round back enclosing a hollow cavity, usually with a sound hole or opening in the body. It may be either fretted or unfretted. More specifically, the term "lu ...

; however, Egyptologists today no longer consider this hypothesis likely. Rather than a lute, the hieroglyph is actually a representation of the

heart The heart is a muscular Organ (biology), organ found in humans and other animals. This organ pumps blood through the blood vessels. The heart and blood vessels together make the circulatory system. The pumped blood carries oxygen and nutrie ...

and

trachea The trachea (: tracheae or tracheas), also known as the windpipe, is a cartilaginous tube that connects the larynx to the bronchi of the lungs, allowing the passage of air, and so is present in almost all animals' lungs. The trachea extends from ...

. It originally may have been the

esophagus The esophagus (American English), oesophagus (British English), or œsophagus (Œ, archaic spelling) (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, see spelling difference) all ; : ((o)e)(œ)sophagi or ((o)e)(œ)sophaguses), c ...

and heart. The striations of the windpipe only appear in the hieroglyph following the

Old Kingdom of Egypt In ancient Egyptian history, the Old Kingdom is the period spanning –2200 BC. It is also known as the "Age of the Pyramids" or the "Age of the Pyramid Builders", as it encompasses the reigns of the great pyramid-builders of the Fourth Dynasty ...

. The lower part of the sign has always clearly been the heart, for the markings clearly follow the form of a

sheep Sheep (: sheep) or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are a domesticated, ruminant mammal typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to d ...

's heart. Image:Nefertiabet name.png, Name of Nefertiabet from the Stele of Nefertiabet-E 15591, 26th century BC, with nefer hieroglyph on right Image:Nefer Amulet MET 26.7.1095 front.nk.jpg, Nefer amulet, 14th century BC Image:Ring Inscribed with the Hieroglyphs Nefer Maat MET 11.215.97 top.jpg, Ring, 14th century BC, with nefer hieroglyph on right Image:Egypte louvre 077 cartouche.jpg,

Cartouche upalt=A stone face carved with coloured hieroglyphics. Two cartouches - ovoid shapes with hieroglyphics inside - are visible at the bottom., Birth and throne cartouches of Pharaoh KV17.html" ;"title="Seti I, from KV17">Seti I, from KV17 at the ...

amulet, 11th-10th century BC, with nefer hieroglyph on the center left Image:Karnak inscription nefer.png, Inscription of Shoshenq I at Karnak, 10th century BC, with nefer hieroglyph on the center left Image:Hieratic nefer.png,

Hieratic Hieratic (; ) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BCE until the rise of Demotic in the mid-first millennium BCE ...

form of nefer hieroglyph from 10th- 11th dynasties Image:Demotic nfr.png,

Demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...

form of the nefer hieroglyph

Use

The use of the hieroglyph ' in the word for "good, beautiful" is attested in Old Egyptian in the Pyramid Text of

Unas Unas or Wenis, also spelled Unis (, Hellenization, hellenized form Oenas or Onnos; died 2345), was a pharaoh, king, the ninth and last ruler of the Fifth Dynasty of Egypt during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom. Unas reigned for 15 to 3 ...

, where it could appear alone to represent the word, or with phonetic complements 𓂋 or 𓆑𓂋. With this meaning, it was incorporated into many names in Ancient Egypt. Examples include Nefertiti,

Nefertari Nefertari, also known as Nefertari Meritmut, was an Egyptian queen and the first of the Great Royal Wife, Great Royal Wives (or principal wives) of Ramesses II, Ramesses the Great. She is one of the best known Egyptian queens, among such women ...

, and Neferhotep. Some scholars suggest that it was used in ancient Egyptian construction where ' was used to denote 'level zero' of a building and in accounting where ' would refer to a zero balance. This last usage used the hieroglyph alone as an abbreviation for ' "depletion". The hieroglyph was also used in a particle ' meaning "not at all, not even" infrequently in Middle Egyptian.

References

Ancient Egypt: the Mythology - Nefer (Beauty)
Beauty * Egyptian hieroglyphs: parts of mammals Ancient Egyptian words and phrases Heart Sheep in art Trachea {{hieroglyph-stub

Form and appearance

Use

See also

References