𓈍

Glyph origin
Representing (probably) the sun rising behind a hill. The inner curve represents the hill, while the outer curve represents the rays of the sun. Old Kingdom examples show a semicircular form with four colorful bands of blues, reds, and greens surmounted by a halo of rays, ; Betrò suggests it may thus represent a rainbow rather than a hill. Allen suggests that it represents the sun rising above the primeval mound, the first earth to arise from the primordial waters at the time of creation. The semi-cursive style of writing this hieroglyph, which showed the sun’s rays as a series of projections instead of an unbroken arc,, was sometimes carried over into ordinary hieroglyphic writing. Another form shows the arc unbroken but rays still visible,. The phonogrammatic value of is derived by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for.