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| Nefer inhieroglyphs | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Nefer nfr Good/Beautiful | |||
TheEgyptian hieroglyph𓄤 serves as a phonogram representing thetriliteral consonant sequencenfr, and appears inGardiner's sign list as numberF35.[2] It appears in the Egyptian word for "perfect, complete" (with the extended meanings of "good, pleasant, well,beautiful"),[3] which has a reconstructed pronunciation of[naːfir] according to Loprieno.[4] The hieroglyph has aconventional Egyptological vocalization ofnefer.
Thetriliteral Egyptian hieroglyph F35 ('nfr') has sometimes been explained as a representation of alute; however, Egyptologists today no longer consider this hypothesis likely. Rather than a lute, the hieroglyph is actually a representation of theheart andtrachea.[1] It originally may have been theesophagus and heart. The striations of thewindpipe only appear in the hieroglyph following theOld Kingdom of Egypt. The lower part of the sign has always clearly been the heart, for the markings clearly follow the form of asheep's heart.[5]
The use of the hieroglyphnfr in the word for "good, beautiful" is attested in Old Egyptian in the Pyramid Text ofUnas, where it could appear alone to represent the word, or with phonetic complements 𓂋 or 𓆑𓂋.[6]
With this meaning, it was incorporated into many names in Ancient Egypt. Examples includeNefertiti,Nefertari, andNeferhotep.
Some scholars suggest that it was used in ancient Egyptian construction wherenfrw was used to denote 'level zero' of a building and in accounting wherenfr would refer to a zero balance.[7] This last usage used the hieroglyph𓄤 alone as an abbreviation fornfrw "depletion".[8]
The hieroglyph was also used in a particlenfr meaning "not at all, not even" infrequently in Middle Egyptian.[9]
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