Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Isaac Fried <if AT math.bu.edu>]

Uri,

You are right---who knows. I am only suggesting an obvious  
possibility. Look at the map and you will see that Egypt is indeed  
just two narrow and long strips of land along the Nile. It is not  
clear to me why my etymology should be more "far fetched" than yours.  
It appears to me that the name of a country (in the ancient sense of  
the word, not in the modern geopolitical sense as drawn on a map),  
who knows how old,  is likelier  to be derived from a permanent and  
apparent geographical feature of the terrain rather than from a  
transient political system. Isn't the ancient Egyptian symbol for a  
foreign country a wavy landscape? I really do not know why the  
present Arabic name of Egypt---originally the land of the Copts =  
Egopts, is MISR.

Isaac Fried, Boston University

On Mar 21, 2007, at 8:27 PM, Uri Hurwitz wrote:

> Isaac Fried if at math.bu.edu
> Wed Mar 21 17:46:56 EST 2007
> Previous message: [b-hebrew] Kush - and Mis(.)rayim
>    Dear Isaac,
>
>   The fact of the two Egypts was well recgonized  by the ancient  
> Egyptian
>  themselves, and marked in various ways.
>
>   As for your suggestion, do you mean the green, culivated strips  
> on the shores of the Nile?   A bit far fetched, - but who knows?     
> And besides, how does one explain the Arabic name, identical to the  
> Heb., but in the singular.
>
>
>   Uri,
>
> Or in reference to the two narrow (CARIM) strips along the Nile.
>
> Isaac Fried, Boston University
>
> Don't get soaked. Take a quick peek at the forecast
> with theYahoo! Search weather shortcut.