# ꜣbḏw
## Egyptian
### Etymology 1

Uncertain. A development from ꜣbw (“elephant”) +‎ ḏw (“mountain”) in a direct genitive construction, thus ‘elephant of the mountain’ in reference to the local topography, has been suggested.

#### Pronunciation

* (reconstructed) IPA: /ʀVˈbaːcʼVw/ → /ʀVˈbaːtʼVw/ → /ʔəˈbaːtʼə/ → /ʔəˈβoːtʼ/
* (Old Egyptian, c. 2500 BCE) IPA: /ʀVˈbaːcʼVw/
    where V represents an unknown short vowel.
* (Middle Egyptian, c. 1700 BCE) IPA: /ʀVˈbaːtʼVw/
    where V represents an unknown short vowel.
* (Amarna-period Late Egyptian, c. 1350 BCE) IPA: /ʔəˈbaːtʼə/
* (latest Late Egyptian, c. 800 BCE) IPA: /ʔəˈβoːtʼ/
* (modern Egyptological) IPA: /ɑbɛd͡ʒuː/
** Conventional anglicization: abedju

#### Proper noun

m./f. topo.
* the city of Abydos
* (metonymically) the afterlife
** 12th Dynasty, Stela of Amenemhat, British Museum, Egyptian Antiquities, E567:
    ḏd.t(w) n.f jjw(j) m ḥtp jn wrw nw ꜣbḏwMay "welcome in peace" be said to him by the great of Abydos.

##### Alternative forms

| ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏwt | ꜣbḏwt | ꜣbḏw |
| ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbdw | ꜣbtt |
| | | | | [New Kingdom] | [Greco-Roman Period] |

##### Derived terms

* nb-ꜣbḏw

##### Descendants

* → Ancient Greek: Ἄβῡδος (Ábūdos)
** Greek: Άβυδος (Ávydos)
** → Latin: Abȳdus, Abidos, Aboedos
* Old Coptic: ⲁⲃⲱⲧ (abōt), ⲁⲃⲟⲧ (abot)
* Sahidic Coptic: ⲉⲃⲱⲧ (ebōt)

#### Noun

m
* (hapax) Abydenes, the people of Abydos collectively [26th Dynasty]

### Etymology 2
#### Pronunciation

* (modern Egyptological) IPA: /ɑbɛd͡ʒuː/
** Conventional anglicization: abedju

#### Noun

m
* a kind of fish, often used medicinally, and mythologically said to pilot the solar barque or, in later times, to be a form of the sun god [since the medical papyri]

##### Usage notes

The existing pictures of this fish are too conventionalized to establish its species with any certainty. It has been suggested to be quite similar to the Nile perch, but with a crescent caudal fin.

##### Alternative forms

| ꜣbḏw | ꜣbḏw | ꜣbd | ꜣbd | ꜣbt | ꜣbt | ꜣbḏw |
| | | [New Kingdom] | [Greco-Roman Period] | [Greco-Roman Period] | [Greco-Roman Period] |

### References

* “Ꜣbḏ.w (lemma ID 103)”, “Ꜣbḏ.w (lemma ID 104)”, and “Ꜣbḏ.w (lemma ID 102)”, 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 (1926) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 1, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 8.23–9.2
* Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 3
* Wilson, Penelope (1991) A Lexicographical Study of the Ptolemaic Texts in the Temple of Edfu, Liverpool: University of Liverpool, page 12
* Dawson, Warren R. (1933) “Studies in the Egyptian Medical Texts—II” in The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 19, p. 137
* Wegner, Josef (2007) “From Elephant-Mountain to Anubis-Mountain? A Theory on the Origins and Development of the Name Abdju” in The Archaeology of Ancient Egypt: Essays in Honor of David O’Connor, volume 2, pages 459–476
* Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 39