Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs

𓅨

elder

NameG36
Readswr
Meansswallow
Taught in06 · Life, prosperity, health

Where it comes from

A swallow — forked tail, long wings folded to a point. It writes wr, “great” in the sense of rank and seniority: the great one, the elder, the chief. Size takes the column; standing takes this bird.

How to remember it

The elder of the air: swallows return each year older and first — the bird of seniority. Mind its lookalike, the sparrow of G37: the swallow’s forked tail lifts a word up, the sparrow’s round tail drags it down.

In the wild

Old Kingdom tomb inscription (aes corpus). urn:nabu:aes:bbawgrabinschriften:3SOT6RKYAJBX7IYKESFMZXREDM:IBUBdyvvHw5gX0VdlhJYRxrccqw · license: attribution. Name renderings are conventional.

Piece by piece:

  • Rꜥw — the sun-god
  • -wr — is great: the swallow, ranking him

A man named for his god’s seniority, swallow-certified. The two greats are told apart in 102’s chapter 06.

Easily confused