mḥ

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

 2-lit.

1. (transitive) to fill
   1. (transitive) to physically fill (a container, vessel, granary, ship, etc.) (+ m or (occasionally) ẖr: with)
   2. (transitive, of people) to fill (a space), to crowd
   3. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (one’s hands or arms) with (something); also, to embrace (someone)
   4. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (a person, one’s body, or one’s mouth) with (food)
   5. (transitive, with m or ẖr) to fill (a place) with (beauty, joy, scent, etc.)
2. (transitive) to complete, to make complete with all members or a full complement, to make whole
3. (transitive) to pay in full
4. (transitive) to inlay (+ m: with)
5. (intransitive) to be(come) full
   1. (intransitive, of containers, one’s arms, etc.) to be(come) physically full (+ m or ẖr: of)
   2. (intransitive, with m or ẖr) to be(come) replete with, full of, abounding in
   3. (intransitive, of animals) to be(come) pregnant, gravid
6. (intransitive) to be(come) complete with all members, full, whole, fully assembled
7. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold or seize
   1. (intransitive with m or transitive) to seize with one’s hand, grasp, lay hold of
   2. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold fast, to grasp
   3. (intransitive with m or transitive) to seize (something) for oneself, to take
   4. (intransitive with m or transitive) to capture (a person), to hold (someone) captive
   5. (intransitive with m or transitive) to capture, to conquer (a city)
   6. (intransitive with m or transitive) to hold fast to (orders, plans, etc.), to not deviate from
8. (catenative, with r and following infinitive) to begin, to set about (doing something)

The ‘seize, hold’ senses were originally used with the preposition m and developed from the ‘fill, be(come) full’ senses: ‘become full of’ → ‘become complete with’ → ‘take’. Later the preposition began to be omitted.

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
				rare		in hieratic

Starting in the 18th Dynasty, the senses relating to ‘seize, hold, capture’ are usually written with a different determinative:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ

in senses relating to ‘seize, hold, capture’

Similarly, the sense of ‘inlay’ starts taking on different determinatives around the same time:

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
in sense ‘inlay’	in sense ‘inlay’	in sense ‘inlay’

• Demotic: mḥ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲟϩ (moh)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲟⲩϩ (mouh)

(From the imperative:)

• ⇒ Demotic: mḥṱ, ꜣmḥṱ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (amahte), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲉ (amahe), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲓ (amahi)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲓ (amahi)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲉϩⲓ (amehi), ⲉⲙⲉϩⲓ (emehi), ⲙⲉϩⲓ (mehi)
  • Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲉⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (emahte)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲁⲙⲁϩⲧⲉ (amahte), ⲁⲙⲁϩⲉ (amahe)

From a form of the verb mḥ (“to fill, to be(come) full”) above; the original sense may have been the number ‘brought to fullness’, ‘made complete’.

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

1. (Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian) Forms ordinal numbers greater than nine from cardinal numbers.
2. (Late Egyptian) Forms ordinal numbers greater than one from cardinal numbers.
3. (Late Egyptian) Also forms the ordinal number for one (‘first’).

Declension of mḥ

	masculine	feminine
singular	mḥ	mḥt

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ

• Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩ- (meh-), ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Lycopolitan Coptic: ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)
• Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩ- (meh-), ⲙⲁϩ- (mah-)

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /mɛh/
  • Conventional anglicization: meh

 m

1. forearm

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ

 m

1. a cubit, a measure of length equivalent to 28 ḏbꜥw (“digits”) or 7 šzpw (“palms”) (about 52.5 centimetres).
   • 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.

2. cubit rod, rod the length of a cubit

Alternative hieroglyphic writings of mḥ  

mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ	mḥ
abbreviation	abbreviation

• mḥ-nswt
• mḥ šrr
• mḥ-tꜣ

• Demotic: mḥ
  • Akhmimic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲉ (mahe)
  • Bohairic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲓ (mahi)
  • Fayyumic Coptic: ⲙⲉϩⲓ (mehi), ⲙⲁϩⲓ (mahi)
  • Sahidic Coptic: ⲙⲁϩⲉ (mahe)

• “mḥ (lemma ID 73290)”, “mḥ (lemma ID 73320)”, and “mḥ (lemma ID 73330)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎, Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning by order of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils by order of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 2004–26 July 2023
• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 116.6–118.10, 119.5–119.21, 120.1–120.7
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 113
• James P Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 103, 105, 174, 208–209, 257, 269, 461.
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, page 83
• Junge, Friedrich (2005) Late Egyptian Grammar: An Introduction, second English edition, Oxford: Griffith Institute, page 68
• Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 130