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
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