I've been searching for, but can't for the life of me find the equivalent in ancient Egyptian to the word "benedict". Tried with "blessed", "glorified", and "exalted" too to no avail.
Thanks in advance.
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1Why would we assume that Ancient Egyptian had a word for "benedict"?– MCW ♦Jun 3, 2017 at 0:15
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3Is benedict even an English word? Other than a personal name, of course. Maybe a back formation from benediction?– jamesqfJun 3, 2017 at 4:31
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"benedict" (as opposed to "Benedict") means a recently married man (from the character in Much Ado About Nothing). Not sure whether Ancient Egyptian has a similar literary reference.– Tim LymingtonNov 1, 2018 at 22:08
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2 Answers
In Middle Egyptian, the word for "exalted" or "raised on high" would be 
or "qAi". Hopefully that is close enough for what you require.
You may find this PDF Dictionary of Middle Egyptian a useful reference.
answered Jun 2, 2017 at 1:14
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Thank you very much, didn't think of looking for Middle Egyptian, I had cornered myself only to the use of Ancient. qAi works indeed, but, and I hope I'm not being a hassle by this, if I wanted to make a more literal translation of what "ben edicto" means, as in "well spoken (of)", could a work around be made by the combination of "xn nfr" and one of the variations of "mdw"? [xn nfr] good {Aa1 N35 Y1 F35} [mdw] (v.) speak, address (someone){S43 D46 G43 A2} How should one approach the conceptual joining? Again, a thousand thanks.– withZJun 2, 2017 at 20:33
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@withZ Sorry, I should have said. Middle Egyptian is the form of written ancient Egyptian used in the Middle Kingdom & 2nd Intermediate Period (roughly 2000-1300BC). Yes, I think you're right about that combination though (always depending on the context, of course). I think the phrase "well spoken of" was actually used in one of the Late Egyptian manuscripts recovered by Napoleon, but it's a long time since I did much work on Egyptian hieroglyphs. Jun 2, 2017 at 21:52
The 10th edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary, which is not infallible but does have the prestige and authority of Britain's second best University behind it, does not list 'benedict' as a word, although it does have 'benediction'.
However, if relevant, the phrase 'maat hrw' (maat meaning truth or justice, hrw meaning voice) was often used to refer to deceased people whose souls were presumed after their deaths to have been pronounced worthy by a court of gods to enter the Ancient Egyptian equivalent of heaven.
