# mdw
## Egyptian
### Etymology 1

From mdwj (“to speak”).

#### Pronunciation

* (reconstructed) IPA: /ˈmaːtʼaw/ → /ˈmaːtʼaw/ → /ˈmaːtʼə/ → /ˈmoːtʼ/
* (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA: /ˈmaːtʼaw/ (singular); IPA: /maˈtʼuww/ (plural)
* (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA: /ˈmaːtʼaw/ (singular); IPA: /maˈtʼuww/ (plural)
* (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA: /ˈmaːtʼə/ (singular); IPA: /məˈtʼuww/ (plural)
* (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA: /ˈmoːtʼ/ (singular); IPA: /məˈtʼøww/ (plural)
* (modern Egyptological) IPA: /mɛduː/
** Conventional anglicization: medu

#### Noun

m
* spoken word
* words, speech, things said
    ― sꜥr mdw ― to convey (someone’s) words (+ n: to (a superior))
* words, text, things written
* command, order, instruction
* magic word, spell
* (law) plea
* used as a generic object for certain verbs such as wḏ (“to command”) and wḏꜥ (“to judge”)

##### Usage notes

This word was displaced by mdwt from Late Egyptian on, though in some cases the replacement may have been purely graphic.
Unlike most u-stems, the noun-forming suffix -w was usually written in mdw.

##### Alternative forms

| mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdwtj |
| | | | | | [Old Kingdom] | [Old Kingdom] | [18th Dynasty] | [18th Dynasty] |
| | | | | | uncommon | uncommon | | uncommon |
The word may be written without determinatives, or with any of the following:
| [Old Kingdom] | [Middle Kingdom] | [New Kingdom] | [New Kingdom] |

##### Derived terms

* jꜥr mdw
* wḏ-mdw
* mdw-nṯr
* ns n mdw
* ḏd-mdw

##### Descendants

* Demotic: mdt, md
** (from the plural) ⇒ Coptic: ⲙⲧⲁⲩ (mtau)

### Etymology 2
#### Noun

m
* staff, rod
* staff as a weapon
* staff as a kind of scepter, staff of authority, baton; also given as a grave good
* sacred staff with the head of a god, revered as a symbol of a particular god or nome [chiefly Greco-Roman Period]
* used in various titles: custodian, attendant, maintainer

##### Alternative forms

| mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw | mdw |
| | | [Old Kingdom] | [Old Kingdom] | [Old Kingdom] |
| | | uncommon | uncommon | uncommon |
| mdw | mdw | mdw | mtw | mdw | mḏ |
| [Middle Kingdom] | [Middle Kingdom] | [New Kingdom] | [Late Period] | [Greco-Roman Period] | [Greco-Roman Period] |
| | uncommon | in hieratic | | | uncommon |

##### Derived terms

* mdw-jꜣw
* mdw n š
* mdw-rḫyt
* mdw-ḥp
* mdw-ḥr
* mdw šps
* mdw šps n spꜣt
* mdw-kꜣ-ḥḏ

### References

* “mdw (lemma ID 78150)” and “mdw (lemma ID 78130)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎, Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning by order of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils by order of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 2004–26 July 2023
* Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 178.1–178.14, 180.4–180.12
* Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 122
* Černý, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 94
* ↑ Loprieno, Antonio (1995) Ancient Egyptian: A Linguistic Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 36, 58