How Did Egypt Get Its Name?
Egypt is transcontinental nation spanning from the northern region of Africa all the way to the southwest of Asia via a bridge in the form of the Sinai Peninsula. On the African side, Egypt is bordered by Libya and Sudan to the west and south respectively. On the Asian side, the east is bound by the Gulf of Aqaba, the northeast by Israel and the Gaza Strip, while the east and south are further bound by the Red Sea. Egypt was among the most advanced civilizations on the planet with massive leaps in writing, urbanization, organized religion, and others. For this reason, ancient Egypt is considered to be a cradle of civilization.
Etymology
Egypt
The current English name 鈥淓gypt鈥� as we know it today originated from an ancient Greek word through Middle French and Latin. The ancient Greek word is 鈥淎铆gyptos,鈥� which was 鈥淓gypte鈥� in Middle French and 鈥淎egyptus鈥� in Latin. The universal argument is that the Greek forms of the word were derived from the Late Egyptian 鈥淗ikuptah鈥� which was a corrupted form of the earlier Egyptian name 鈥淗wt-ka-Ptah鈥� (Ha-ka-Ptah). This earlier Egyptian name translates to "home of the soul (ka) of Ptah". This name is what the Egyptians used to refer to the city of Memphis where the chief deity being worshipped was none other than the potter god Ptah. Other scholars like Strabo argued that the word originated from folklore. Strabo argues that the word 鈥淎铆gyptos鈥� was once a compound word, 鈥淎igaiou hupti艒s,鈥� which roughly translates as being underneath the Aegean.
Misr
In the Qurans written in classical Arabic, Egypt is known as 鈥淢isr,鈥� which is a name of Semitic roots. The name 鈥淢isr鈥� is also Egypt鈥檚 modern official name. In Egyptian Arabic, the name is pronounced as 鈥淢a峁.鈥� The name 鈥淢isr鈥� is a cognate from words such as 鈥淢itzr谩yim鈥� in the Hebrew language while in Akkadian, Egypt was known as 鈥渕i峁u.鈥� The Akkadian form of the word is the oldest verification of the name鈥檚 (Misr) relation to Semitic languages. The Akkadian form of the country鈥檚 name is related to other words such as 鈥渕i峁u,鈥� 鈥渕i峁rru,鈥� and 鈥渕i峁ru.鈥� All of these names roughly translate to a frontier or a border, which would make sense considering that Egypt can be described as a border between continents.
Kemet
In ancient Egyptian, the country鈥檚 name was 鈥淜emet.鈥� This name holds a reference to the black and fertile soils that are lying in the Nile floodplains. In contrast, the word for a desert, which typically has red sand, was 鈥渄eshret鈥� which translates to the desert鈥檚 red land. Even though the name is pronounced as kemet in modern times, scholars argue that it was probably pronounced differently during its time. When the Egyptian language was in the Coptic phase, the name was slightly altered to 鈥渒膿me鈥� while in Greek it was further altered to 鈥淜h膿m铆a鈥� (围畏渭委伪).
Other Names
Aside from the above names, there have been other names for Egypt such as 鈥渢隃�-mry鈥� which translates to a land on a riverbank. This name would obviously be in reference to the Nile or the Red Sea. Upper Egypt was 鈥淭a-Sheme'aw鈥� (Sedgeland) while the lower one was Ta-Mehew (Northland).
