# What does this Egyptian sentence means? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 14, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743 "2003-06-14T04:02:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f08c70/32.png) [@Crowbar\_of\_Irony\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crowbar_of_Irony_3)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2003, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/1 "2003-06-14T04:02:50Z")
Hi all, There was this story in “The Tracer of Lost Persons” (by Robert W. Chambers), chapter 17 to 20, about an Egyptian girl being put into suspend animation. Much of the story revolves around the deciphering of an ancient Egyptian scroll (something like “The Gold Bug” by Poe). At the end of the story, to cut it short, the hero woke up the sleeping Egyptian girl. The girl said, _“Ari un aha, O Entuk sen”_ (I omitted the accent on the characters because I have no idea how to put it in). From the story, I know that “entuk” means “you”, but what is the meaning of the rest of the sentence? Thnaks in advance. ---
**Author:** ![Hendo56](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9de053/32.png) [@Hendo56](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendo56)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2023, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/2 "2023-07-13T16:04:38Z")
Did anyone ever answer this question for you? I just read that story, and even with today’s computers I can’t get a translation! Is it Egyptian or Arabic or what? To end a story like that is really annoying. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2023, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/3 "2023-07-13T16:09:52Z")
> [@Hendo56](#): > > Did anyone ever answer this question for you? I just read that story, and even with today’s computers I can’t get a translation! Is it Egyptian or Arabic or what? To end a story like that is really annoying. Thanks Welcome to the Dope, @Hendo56! You should probably note that this post was made back in 2003, and the original poster might be long gone. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2023, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/4 "2023-07-13T21:47:20Z")
It’s Egyptian if it’s anything, not Arabic. E.g., “sen” could mean something like brother or lover or husband. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 14, 2023, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/5 "2023-07-14T21:55:35Z")
Although i can find the book online, googling the phrase reveals nothing, which i find surprising. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2023, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/6 "2023-07-15T02:17:47Z")
Is it possible that the sentence actually doesn’t mean anything, but is merely gibberish made up by the author? The novel in question was published in 1906, when people were, shall we say, not always conscientious about getting the details of foreign cultures perfectly correct. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2023, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/7 "2023-07-15T06:53:17Z")
Ari is an Egyptian creative god? So upon awakening she may think she has been resurrected? Thinks he is that god? ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2023, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/8 "2023-07-15T11:47:49Z")
Which god does that correspond to? My knowledge of Egyptian religion does not even rise to the level of patchy. > [@MrAtoz](#): > > Is it possible that the sentence actually doesn’t mean anything, but is merely gibberish made up by the author? The novel in question was published in 1906, when people were, shall we say, not always conscientious about getting the details of foreign cultures perfectly correct. Always a possibility— Gardiner’s textbook was only published in 1927— but we would have to rule it out. Was the author known to be any sort of Egyptologist? ---
**Author:** ![Hendo56](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9de053/32.png) [@Hendo56](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hendo56)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/9 "2023-08-22T17:20:26Z")
Hope springs eternal! The whole story rests on that last sentence… and it was not translated in the book I read. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/10 "2023-08-22T18:35:22Z")
The [version of the story](https://books.google.com/books?id=RPlaArYxosMC&lpg=PA450&ots=r0f9g8u73t&dq=%22Ari%20un%20%C4%81h%C4%81%2C%20O%20Entuk%20sen%22&pg=PA435#v=onepage&q=%22Ari%20un%20%C4%81h%C4%81,%20O%20Entuk%20sen%22&f=false) that appeared in _The Idler Magazine_ in 1906 includes both the hieroglyphs and transliterations for some words and phrases, unlike the version found on Project Gutenberg which has only the transliterations. Unfortunately the mysterious final sentence is only given in transliteration. That makes it hard to decipher because Egyptian had a lot of homophones, with different meanings and spelling (in the original language) but the same transliteration. I expect Chambers was using some book about Egyptian language published before 1906. Budge’s [First Steps in Egyptian Hieroglyphics](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024350871&seq=52&q1=sen) (1895) is a contender. I haven’t gone through the whole book, but I can verify that it lists “entuk” as a pronoun of some sort (p. 23). Budge’s works on Egyptian were once considered accurate, but they have been superseded by new research on the language. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2023, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/11 "2023-08-22T19:09:11Z")
“entuk” (netak) = [![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/5/50b208bd32504d58ee4b81a84ef89bf1d5ee57ea.png) ](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/5/50b208bd32504d58ee4b81a84ef89bf1d5ee57ea.png) is a pronoun meaning “you” ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/12 "2023-08-23T12:43:53Z")
Getting back to this, let us examine the second sentence: “O entuk sen”. Such a short utterance, but what is it supposed to mean?? Not sure what “o” means, but let’s ignore it for now. We know “entuk” [![](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_n&t&k.png) ](https://en.wiktionary.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_n&t&k.png) means “you” and “sen” [![](https://images4.imagebam.com/d3/2c/04/MENXP9Z_o.png) ](https://images4.imagebam.com/d3/2c/04/MENXP9Z_o.png) means “brother”, but “entuk sen” cannot mean “you are my brother”; that would be “(e)nt(u)k s(e)n.i” [![](https://images4.imagebam.com/a8/48/fc/MENXPLN_o.png) ](https://images4.imagebam.com/a8/48/fc/MENXPLN_o.png) , with the suffix. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/13 "2023-08-23T16:16:15Z")
Excellent work. I still can’t believe that this hasn’t been answered (or nowhere google can find !) in over 100 years… ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2023, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/14 "2023-08-23T20:59:49Z")
Well, the probable reason this has not been answered— I am increasingly convinced this is “Romanes eunt domus” style Egyptian. For example, paging through @bibliophage 's link, at one point it describes “the ancient Egyptian word for ‘little,’ _‘ket.’_ The next… the name of a woman.” However, Allen’s textbook states that “The rule that adjectives must follow their noun is invariable.” Maybe it’s a deliberate part of the story that the detective simply does not know Egyptian, as much as he thinks he does? Or maybe that is true of Chambers. ---
**Author:** ![TheTracerOfLostMinds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TheTracerOfLostMinds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheTracerOfLostMinds)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/15 "2026-02-06T05:41:54Z")
“Ari un āhā, O Entuk sen!” You’ll notice the author gives a translation for O just before: “‘O Ket Samaris, Nehes!’—‘O Little Samaris, awake!’" in which O is literally just the English word O (of formal/respectful direct address such as: O Lord). Unfortunately I can’t really translate with much certainty since these 1900s translations read more like wishful-thinking quackery from people reading-in whatever meaning they want for 50% of it and pretending like they’ve translated Egyptian hieroglyphics (they’d only just started really deciphering texts a few decades prior and it was yet quite unrefined), and I’m not some Egyptologist who can give an expert translation or comment on whether translations have gotten much better since then or if that wildly open to interpretation aspect is just an actual part of the language. (allegedly [this guy](https://www.oldstyletales.com/single-post/2017/09/06/7-best-horror-stories-by-robert-w-chambers-not-including-the-king-in-yellow-stories) had an expert translate it for him and presumably that translation could be found in his annotations in his book for sale but I couldn’t find it online). Now, gathering some translations for these words from the literature of the time (R W Chambers was fluent in French as well but I couldn’t find much worthwhile outside English anyway, and the above bibliophage commenter’s linked text has every word in it anyway and I put those in [brackets]): - Ari = [to do, was made/done, maketh/do, I have], title of respect(divinity), lord, an attendant/guardian - un = [to be, there is, is, opened], open(er/ed), shrine, shaved, hair-pulling, walk/run/rise - āhā = [to stand, standing, duration]/stand up, withstand, stability, time, period/duration of life - Entuk = [singular pronoun], (entek)you(masc.) - sen = [plural pronoun, pass, give/take/exchange] they/their/them, pair/2, smell/breathe, house, brother, die/depart/walk, to cut So what does “Ari un āhā, O Entuk sen!” mean? From the “!” and direct address “O” it is almost certainly a command she is giving to the guy she just met upon waking up after millennia asleep, even without any translation, given the details/context provided by the story, the obvious things she might say would be to either comment on her surroundings being different, ask what is going on?, or assume that she is still being held captive and demand to be let go. Given that she utters a command it seems the last one is very likely. Now interpreting the extremely loose translations is very difficult (even the examples translated by the author involve extreme leaps lacking logic for 50% of it since there’s almost no grammar and most of it just inferred from nothing) so here are some examples of translations one might force given the above translations: ”Guard standing there, O you will let (me) pass!” ”Make open this time, O you brother/dead/taker/lot!” ”(I) have endured, O you who pass/die!” [unlikely in context given the speakers unawareness of what happened to her] ”(I) passed existing for a time, O you \_ !_” ”Make open (I) arise, O you_ \_ !” As presumed before translation, something like ”Guard standing there, O you will let (me) pass!” seems likely what the author was going for, as the girl trying to flee her captors is central to her kidnapped/hypnotized role in the narrative and mentioned multiple times. ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/16 "2026-02-06T10:12:23Z")
Welcome to the SDMB ! And thanks for the update. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2026, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/17 "2026-02-06T12:58:31Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > I expect Chambers was using some book about Egyptian language published before 1906. Budge’s [First Steps in Egyptian Hieroglyphics](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015024350871&seq=52&q1=sen) (1895) is a contender….Budge’s works on Egyptian were once considered accurate, but they have been superseded by new research on the language. “You guys are still using Budge?” –Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader) in **Stargate** (1994) ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/18 "2026-02-07T16:47:52Z")
I believe that sentence translates into “… do the sand dance, don’tcha know.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/19 "2026-02-07T16:59:50Z")
I figured it meant Edgar Allan had been drinking again. ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2026, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743/20 "2026-02-07T22:18:18Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I am increasingly convinced this is “Romanes eunt domus” style Egyptian People called ‘Romanes,’ they go the house? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-does-this-egyptian-sentence-means/181743.md?page=2)