Egyptian
PluralEgyptians
PluralEgyptians
- 1A person who is from Egypt, or someone whose ancestors came from Egypt.
The Egyptian welcomed us warmly into her home in Cairo.
Many Egyptians living abroad return home for the holidays.
- 2Belonging to or coming from Egypt, or relating to its people or their language.
Egyptian cotton is prized worldwide for its softness and strength.
The lecture traced the symbols carved across an Egyptian temple wall.
Note
This adjective came into English as Middle English Egipcien and pushed out the older Old English Egyptisċ. Today it reads simply as Egypt plus -ian. It is not used comparatively, so it classifies rather than grades. Because it covers the country, the people and the language, a phrase like Egyptian texts can mean texts from Egypt or texts written in the ancient language.
- 3The language of the ancient Egyptians, a branch of the Afroasiatic family, used both in speech and in writing.
Students of archaeology often spend years learning to read Egyptian.
The inscription was carved in Egyptian beside a row of painted figures.
Note
As the name of a language it behaves like Latin or Greek: people learn Egyptian or read Egyptian, with no article and no plural. The fuller Ancient Egyptian means the same thing. It is the safer choice wherever a reader might otherwise think of the speech of present-day Egypt.
Less common meaning
- 4A member of the Romani people, formerly thought to have originated in Egypt.
The constable questioned an Egyptian who had been selling charms in the market.
I went to see the Egyptian, and the Hoodoo doctors too. They shook their heads, and told me there was nothing they could do.
1968, Little Brother Montgomery, Bruce SaundersSimilarRomani
Note
This word was once the respectable choice. In Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749), Egyptians is the proper term, and gypsies is what such people are "vulgarly called." The word lasted into song: in Little Brother Montgomery's "Prescription for the Blues" (1968), the singer consults an Egyptian as well as practitioners of hoodoo. It is now dated. Use it only when quoting or evoking the past.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English "Egipcien" or "egyptiane," which replaced the Old English word "Egyptisċ." By its parts, it is simply "Egypt" plus the suffix "-ian."