𓅓

Glyph origin
Representing an owl. This is the only bird hieroglyph that is depicted face-on, perhaps because of its distinctive gaze. The reversible hind toe is not drawn. The precise species of owl varied by time period; in the Protodynastic Period it was the pharaoh eagle owl, and this was also used sporadically throughout dynastic times. Since the 3rd Dynasty the owl was more commonly a barn owl. In hieratic the owl is long-eared (‘horned’) since the earliest times. Conventionally, it is colored yellow.

The phonetic value of is presumably derived from some word (probably for an owl), but this word may have been lost in archaic times; numerous hypotheses have been put forward about what it might have been:


 * A Proto-Egyptian, cf. ,
 * An, cf. ,
 * An, cf. ,
 * An, cf.
 * Related to Semitic