Negus[a] is the word for "king" in theEthiopian Semitic languages and atitle[2] which was usually bestowed upon a regional ruler by theNegusa Nagast, or "King of Kings,"[3] in pre-1974 Ethiopia. The negus is referred to as Al-Najashi (النجاشي) in theIslamic tradition.
Sometime during the development of the Ethio-Semitic language family"m-l-k," the originaltriconsonantal root for king, was elevated to the generic word for "god" in the form of thebroken plural "ʾämlak, ʔamlāk," as well as the word for angelic or divine when conjugated asmelekot. It is possible the word related to HebrewEl (Elohim) orAllah (Ilah) was lost due to aword taboo much likeYHWH. During this time the ancient semitic term for a ruler or lord, n-g-s (from Proto-Semitic √ngɬ 'to push, press for work'), began to mean "king." Along with that term, in the early Ethiopian state ofD'mt theSouth Semitic termMukarrib (priest-king), mostly associated with theKingdom of Sheba, was in use and theGe'ezmalak (መለክ) remained in throne names into theGondarine period. The universal existence of asemantic shift in n-g-s across the Ethio-Semitic languages is evidence that it doesn't comprise separate branches of the Semitic language family.
In an ancientAramaic inscription mentioning the godʿAṯtar his name is followed by the title𐡍𐡂𐡔 (ngš), corresponding toAncient North Arabian𐪌𐪔𐪆 (ngś), meaning "the ruler."[4] The vocabularies of various otherEast andWest Semitic languages such asAkkadian contained cognates to theHabesha term "negus" with definitions ranging from regional lord to tyrant.
Negus is a noun derived from theSemitic rootngś, meaning "to reign". The title Negus literally translated toBasileus (Greek: βασιλεύς) inAncient Greek, which was seen many times onAksumite currency. The title has subsequently been used to translate the word "king" or "emperor" inBiblical and other literature. In more recent times, it was used as an honorific title bestowed on governors of the most important provinces (kingdoms):Gojjam,Begemder,Wello,Tigray and the seaward kingdom, (where the variationBahri Negasi (Sea King), was the title of the ruler of present-day central Eritrea). The military title "Meridazmatch" was initially used by therulers of Shewa until the reign ofSahle Selassie, when he and his successors adopted the royal title as well.[5][6] It was mistakenly used to refer to theAtse in western sources be they English, Polish, Hungarian or Romanian, and was loaned intoHindi through Arabic as "नजाशी."
