Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>]

On 22/11/2004 22:24, MarianneLuban AT aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 11/22/2004 1:11:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
> peterkirk AT qaya.org writes:
>
>
>  
>
> > > Yes--my memory served me wrong.  The Coptic alphabet certainly does have a 
> > >      
> > >
> > > "thita"--but I have never seen it used in *Egyptian* words--which is what I 
> > >      
> > >
> > > should have said in the first place.  It is reserved for the writing of 
> > >      
> > Greek 
> >    
> >
> > > words, which certainly proliferate in Coptic texts. ...
> > >
> > >      
> > Well, maybe. But "ethouab", the last word of Figure 9 and the 7th word 
> > of the Coptic text in Figure 12 of 
> > http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n2636.pdf, is not a Greek word. Do 
> > you recognise it as of Egyptian origin? In Figure 9 it is glossed as 
> > "saint" (in French, but the English meaning is also "saint" or "holy").
> >    
>
> My Coptic grammar says thita can be an abbreviation for "t H"--such as 
> "ethneete" for "t Heneete".  "Heneete " is "monastary" and "t' is the feminine 
> article "the".  I can't tell you why the thita is present in "ethouab" because I am 
> not sure of the meaning of the entire phrase.  I don't read Coptic very well 
> because the syntax is very different from ancient Egyptian.  And the dialects 
> vary, too. The only thing I recognize in the term is "wab" or "pure" in AE.   
> Coptic is a specialization all by itself and few Egyptologists are well-versed 
> in it.  The Sahidic Coptic dictionary gives "pure" or "holy" as "ouaab"--but 
> gives no term for "saint".  So I can't tell you so quickly what "ethouab" is 
> all about--but I'll have a further look.  
>  

Thank you. But my guess would be that this is a prefix et- on a word 
originally something like houab, and the t and h merge into theta 
according to a regular spelling rule. Or I suppose it could be some kind 
of compound of Greek ethos "custom" and Coptic ouaab "holy". Let me know 
if you find out more.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/