Note 658 — Chapter IV · Egypt

Earlier Egyptologists derived the word quite differently, explaining it as Libyan (e.g. V. Stern, Z. f. Aeg. Spr. 1883, pp. 24 f. and references, ad loc.) or Ethiopian (= son of the Sun), (Brugsch, Ges. Aeg. pp. 731 f., but cp. Wiedemann, Aeg. Ges. p. 623). Meyer, Ges. Aeg. p. 363, describes it simply as “not Egyptian,” presumably as not occurring before the Saite period. But this is no argument if the name was till then extremely plebeian. Petrie rejects “man (vendor of) mixing bowls,” as manifestly absurd and analyses P-sam-te-k = the (Egyptian) lion’s (Upper Egyptian) son (Ethiopian) the (Ethiopian suffix) (Hist. Eg. III. p. 320, accepted as probable by How and Wells, ad Hdt. II. 151). He compares Shaba-ta-ka (Ethiopian dynasty, 707–693) = wild cat’s son the; but this is no parallel for the real difficulty, which is the extraordinary hybrid composition. Linguistic hybrids are legion. Our own forefathers enriched Latin with the word quicksethedgavit. But so complicated a hybrid as Petrie implies cannot be considered seriously without some very solid evidence for really parallel monstrosities. Spiegelberg (Orient. Litt. Zeit. 1905, p. 560), after arguing convincingly against Petrie, accepts “bowl vendor” as a popular etymology, but rejects it as the real meaning, “denn kein König wird Mischkrughändler heissen wollen.” He explains the word as really meaning “man of the god Mtk”; only no such god is known. Even if there were, Spiegelberg’s explanation cuts both ways. If, as the evidence has shown, there is a probability that Psammetichus I had really been a vendor of something like mixing bowls, and got his name from his occupation, some such aristocratic explaining away of the plebeian name may perhaps have induced him and his successors to keep it, just as Mrs Snooks in one of Wells’ stories became more than reconciled to her name after it had been explained as an abbreviation of Sevenoaks and spelt accordingly.