ⲉⲃⲓⲏⲛ

Coptic

Etymology

From Demotic ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ ⁠ (ꜣbyn, “poor man”). Ultimately borrowed from Canaanite *ʾabyōn-,^[1] whence also Hebrew אֶבְיוֹן (ʾeḇyōn, “poor, needy”). Related to Ugaritic 𐎀𐎁𐎊𐎐 (ảbyn /⁠ʾabyānu⁠/, “poor, impoverished”).^[2]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): */(ʔ)əβˈjeːn/

Noun

ⲉⲃⲓⲏⲛ • (ebiēn) m or f

(Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic) a poor, wretched, miserable person

Adjective

ⲉⲃⲓⲏⲛ • (ebiēn)

(Sahidic, Bohairic, Akhmimic, Fayyumic) miserable, wretched

References

^ Wilson-Wright, Aren M., Huehnergard, John (2021) “How to Kill a Dragon in Northwest Semitic: Three Linguistic Observations regarding Ugaritic ltn and Hebrew liwyātān”, in Vetus Testamentum, volume 72, number 1, Brill, →DOI: “Normally, the suffix *-ān becomes -ôn in Biblical Hebrew with the operation of the Canaanite shift (e.g., *ʔabyān- > ʔebyôn “poor”).”
^ Bordreuil, Pierre, Pardee, Dennis (2009) A Manual of Ugaritic, Penn State Press, →ISBN, page 293: “ʾABYN adjective 'destitute, poor' /ʾabyānu/”

Janet H. Johnson, editor (2001), The Demotic Dictionary of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago‎^[1], volume ꜣ (02.1), Chicago: The University of Chicago, page 18
Černý, Jaroslav (1976) Coptic Etymological Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 32
Crum, Walter E. (1939) A Coptic Dictionary‎^[2], Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN, page 53
“ꜣbjn (lemma ID d73)”, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae‎^[3], Corpus issue 18, Web app version 2.1.5, Tonio Sebastian Richter & Daniel A. Werning by order of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften and Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert & Peter Dils by order of the Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 2004–26 July 2023
Vycichl, Werner (1983) Dictionnaire Étymologique de la Langue Copte, Leuven: Peeters, →ISBN, page 38

[1] Wilson-Wright, Aren M., Huehnergard, John (2021) “How to Kill a Dragon in Northwest Semitic: Three Linguistic Observations regarding Ugaritic ltn and Hebrew liwyātān”, in Vetus Testamentum, volume 72, number 1, Brill, →DOI: “Normally, the suffix *-ān becomes -ôn in Biblical Hebrew with the operation of the Canaanite shift (e.g., *ʔabyān- > ʔebyôn “poor”).”

[2] Bordreuil, Pierre, Pardee, Dennis (2009) A Manual of Ugaritic, Penn State Press, →ISBN, page 293: “ʾABYN adjective 'destitute, poor' /ʾabyānu/”

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