Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs

𓈎

slope

NameN29
Readsq
Meansslope of a hill
Taught in04 · Your first signs

Where it comes from

The slope of a hill — a rising bank of sand drawn as a tall curve. It writes q (often printed ḳ): the emphatic k, pressed from further back in the throat than plain k.

How to remember it

Climbing a sand slope takes effort from deep in the chest — and so does q, the k with weight behind it. Plain k walks on flat ground; q climbs.

In the wild

Old Kingdom tomb-scene caption (aes corpus). urn:nabu:aes:bbawgrabinschriften:2PGN6CK4QBEKNEP7VZX3WBVXSY:IBUBd8PxTjqTAkthkbPkGuGBHcI · license: attribution. The mold-word's spelling is compressed on the wall.

Piece by piece:

  • qr — heating in a stack: the slope-sign opening the bakery’s verb
  • bḏꜣ — the bread-molds

The bakers stack their molds on the fire, and the effortful q starts the work. The sign is taught in 101’s chapter 04.