Egypt

Origin and history of the name

Misr, the Arabic and official name for modern Egypt, is of Semitic origin directly cognate with the Hebrew ????????? Misráyim meaning "the two straits", and possibly means "a country" or "a state." The ancient name for the country, kemet, or "black land," is derived from the fertile black soils deposited by the Nile floods, distinct from the 'red land' (deshret) of the desert. This name became keme in a later stage of Coptic. The English name "Egypt" came via the Latin word Aegyptus derived from the ancient Greek word ???????? Aiguptos (see also List of traditional Greek place names), which in turn is derived from the ancient Egyptian phrase ?wt-k3-pt? ("Hwt ka Ptah") meaning "home of the Ka (part of the soul) of Ptah," the name of a temple of the god Ptah at Memphis. For details see the article Copt.

Related Topics:
Arabic - Semitic - Hebrew - Coptic - List of traditional Greek place names - Egyptian - Ka (part of the soul) - Ptah - Memphis - Copt

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