Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs

𓅭

duck

NameG39
Readszꜣ
Meanspintail duck — son
Taught in08 · Born of, son of

Where it comes from

A pintail duck — long neck, pointed tail, resting. It writes zꜣ, “son” (with the loaf, zꜣ,t, “daughter”): the sign of filiation. Kings are zꜣ-Rꜥw, “son of Ra,” and every family wall lines up its children behind this bird.

How to remember it

The duck paddles with its brood behind it — and in the script the brood is the point: son of, daughter of, child of. One duck, and a family tree starts.

In the wild

Old Kingdom tomb inscription (aes corpus). urn:nabu:aes:bbawgrabinschriften:JLBCEUYJHNDBZOWRFVBJ52HIXU:IBUBd3Uo1rMncUEukkXQWYGwYX4 · license: attribution. Name renderings are conventional.

Piece by piece:

  • zꜣ,t≡f — his daughter: the duck with the viper
  • S,t≡s-kꜣ,w — her name, built on throne and basket

A daughter takes her place on her father’s wall, led in by the family duck. The sign is taught in 101’s chapter 08.