Pr (hieroglyph)
Pr is the hieroglyph for 'house', the floor-plan of a walled building with an open doorway.
While its original pronunciation is not known with certainty, modern Egyptology assigns it the value of per, but purely on the basis of a convention specific to the discipline. However, the Ancient Greek rendering of the title pr-`3 as pharaō suggests the reconstruction of the historical pronunciation as *par, see Pharaoh#Etymology.
Pr combined with an associated "personal name", god, or location becomes the "house of....." An example for pharaoh Setnakhte is the city of: Pr-Atum,. Pr and ankh- is a "combination hieroglyph" and is the "word" for house of life. The "house of life" is a library for papyrus books-, as well as a possible scriptorium.
The shape of pr in beginning dynasties had variations in the shape of a square, with the opening. See Garrett Reference for tomb of Official Ti.
Pr is one of hieroglyphs adopted into the Proto-Sinaitic script, the earliest known alphabetic writing system. It was used to represent the phoneme /b/ as in bayt, the Canaanite word for "house", after the hieroglyph's original meaning. The Latin letter B is a distant descendant of this letter.
"Pr-name" /associations
- pr-aa– Pharaoh
- pa-pr-aa– PapyrusPr-Ab– ThothPer-Amun– PelusiumPr-Aat– HeliopolisPr-Atum– House of Atum: HeliopolisPr-Atum– SetnakhtePr-Banebdjedet– MendesPr-Bast– House of Bast: BubastisPr-Bastet– ZagazigPr-Djet– a type of early Egyptian tombPr-Hai– MalqataPr-Hay– Amenhotep IIIPr-Hay– Great Temple of the Aten
- Pr-Hathor– AphroditopolisPr-Hedj– Treasury Pr-Medjat– LibraryPr-Nebu– Treasury Pr-Nebyt– Ramesses VPr-Nemty– HieraconPr-Ramesses– Avaris, History of ancient Egypt
- Pr-Sekhemkheperre– Osorkon I
- Pr-Sopdu– SopduPr-t– Season of the Emergence
- Pr-Temu Tjeku– Necho IIPr-Wadjet– Buto, WadjetPr-Yinepu– Anubis