Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs

𓂜D35 · n · arms spread in refusal

refusal

Where it comes from

Two arms spread wide, palms down — the human gesture of refusal and empty hands, made into a sign. It writes the negations n and nn: “not,” “there is not.” Egyptian says no with its whole body.

How to remember it

Refusal needs no sound: the open arms that mean “nothing here, not happening” in any century. When a sentence opens with this shrug, whatever follows is denied.

In the wild

Piece by piece:

• n rdi̯.n≡sn — they did not put: the refusal-arms flipping the giving
• Jmn — Amun
• m jb≡sn — in their hearts

Piye’s whole indictment of his enemies in one negation. The line is read in 102’s chapter 04.