Hieroglyphs Addenda · Signs

𓉐

house

NameO1
Readspr
Meanshouse (ground-plan)
Taught in03 · How signs mean

Where it comes from

A house in ground-plan: four walls and a gap for the door, drawn the way an architect would. It writes pr, “house” — and pr-ꜥꜣ, the “great house,” is the palace, the word that became pharaoh. The same sign lends itself to pri̯, “to go out”: what a door is for.

How to remember it

A house seen from above — walls squared, one doorway open. Everything domestic starts at this plan, and everything that goes forth leaves through its one gap.

In the wild

From a funerary liturgy against Apophis (aes corpus). urn:nabu:aes:bbawtotenlit:2Z3OHH5EKZEUTAFMAIWR2PXTGE:IBUBd7UkuKHYoUOMgMmYlHKqeLY · license: attribution.

Piece by piece:

  • pr≡f — his house: the floor plan with its word-sign stroke
  • ḫf.y — destroyed, with the cautious stand-in stroke where a dangerous sign would go

A curse flattens the enemy’s house — plan and all. The sign is taught in 101’s chapter 03; the pharaoh etymology is told in 102’s chapter 06.