nꜥ: Fecht, Der Vorwurf an Gott, 30 denkt an nꜥꜥ: "das Beste von etwas". Helck scheint in n ꜥ.pl=tn abzutrennen: "[vom Besten] eurer Listen", aber ꜥ hat nicht die Schreibutensilien als Determinativ.

The base meaning of nꜥꜥ is "be smooth" (Westendorf 1957: 297); the suggested occasional meaning 'fine, good quality' (suggested here by Fecht 1972: 30) rests on one instance in the Kamose stela: "the nꜥꜥ of their fields are ploughed for us" (Helck 1983: 85). It is a little more likely that here the word refers to a particular type of cattle; a white calf is called nꜥꜥ in the tomb of nomarch Baqet III at Beni Hasan (Newberry 1893b: pl. 7), and a cow(hide?) is nꜥ in a broken context in a 21st dynasty list (Spiegelberg 1917: 22). Many rare names for cattle with different marking patterns are known from the 13th dynasty Ramesseum Ostracon (Gardiner 1947 vol. 2: p. 23) and later sources (see Helck 1961-69: 284). A 'fine' or 'unblemished' cow would be suitable for ritual slaughter. (see: R. Enmarch, forthcoming, A World Upturned: The Ancient Egyptian Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All. To appear in the British Academy Postdoctoral Monograph Series).

Commentary author: Roland Enmarch; with contributions by: Altägyptisches Wörterbuch; Data file created: before June 2015 (1992–2015), latest revision: 06/26/2015