𓈘

Glyph origin
Representing a canal bordered by banks and dikes. In detailed Old Kingdom depictions the water area is covered with zigzagging ripples,. Sometimes the canal is shown curved rather than straight,, especially in the Old Kingdom. This glyph partly supplanted , its variants    and   , and    as a determinative for cultivated land in the 8th Dynasty, but in this function eventually changed into the form    in the 11th Dynasty. The water in the canal is conventionally green, or sometimes (lighter) blue; the outline is (darker) blue, perhaps representing mud brick. The phonogrammatic value of is derived by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for.