hꜣj

Sometimes proposed to be from a form such as Proto-Afroasiatic *hVy/*hVw- (“to fall, to happen”), in which case it may be cognate with Arabic هوى (hawā, “to come down, to fall”) and Iraqw huu’ (“fall, drop”).

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /hɑi/
  • Conventional anglicization: hai

 3ae inf.

1. (intransitive) to descend
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 24–28:

     hꜣ.kw r wꜣḏ-wr m dpt nt št-mḏwtj mḥ m ꜣw.s ḥmw mḥ m sḫw.s št-mḏwtj sqd jm.s m stp n(j) kmt

     I had gone down to the sea in a boat of a hundred twenty cubits in length and forty cubits in breadth, with a hundred twenty sailors in it of the choice of Egypt.

   • c. 1800 BCE, The Eloquent Peasant, version R (pRamesseum A/pBerlin 10499, Recto) lines 1.2–1.3:

     m.t wj m hꜣt r kmt r jnt ꜥqw jm n ẖrdw.j

     • Translation by J. P. Allen

       Look, I am going down to Egypt to get provisions there for my children.

2. (intransitive) to fall, to drop
   • c. 2000 BCE – 1900 BCE, Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor (pHermitage/pPetersburg 1115) lines 129–130:

     ꜥḥꜥ.n sbꜣ hꜣ

     Then a star fell.

3. (intransitive) to come, to walk (+ n or r: to (someone))
4. (transitive) to charge upon, to fall upon (an enemy)
   • c. 1859 BCE – 1840 BCE, The Story of Sinuhe, version B (pBerlin 3022 and pAmherst n-q) lines 52–53:

     nn twt n.f mꜣꜣ.t(w).f hꜣ.f r-pḏt(j)w ẖꜥm.f r-ḏꜣw

     • Translation by J. P. Allen

       There is none equal to him when he is seen charging archers and engaging opposition.

• Bohairic Coptic: ϩⲉⲓ (hei)
• Sahidic Coptic: ϩⲉ (he)

• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 472.3–475.4
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 156
• James P Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 180, 275.