𓈖

Glyph origin
A depiction of waves. The number of ripples varies, but the ends always slant down and can sometimes be longer than the other strokes. In less careful writing, the hieroglyph can be found simplified to a single horizontal line, sometimes rising at the end. Rarely, it can be turned on its side to stand vertically. , or dark blue, suggestive of silt-laden Nile flood water which watered the "black land". (Compare the canal glyph, where the water is most often green, and the pool glyph , where the water was lighter blue or green.) Compare the Chinese character.

The phonogrammatic value is possibly derived by the rebus principle from, but this word only appears in the Middle Kingdom. An alternative source could be the older.