nswt

Etymology 1
Traditionally (since Sethe 1911) derived from in a direct genitive construction with  used as a noun, literally ‘the belonging one of the sedge’, i.e. ‘the one to whom Upper Egypt belongs’, the sedge being an emblem of Upper Egypt. The odd glyph order in the written form is probably due to a preference for forming compact groups of hieroglyphs.

However, this interpretation has been challenged, as Helck, Schenkel, and others have argued that the plant represented by is not the emblem of Upper Egypt at all; Schenkel also suggests the reconstructed vocalization of the word does not support such an etymology. Peust goes so far as to say the word has no special connection with Upper Egypt, and derives it as borrowed from with the Egyptian noun-forming suffix. This might also be suggested by the alternate reading nzw and the cuneiform rendering 𒅔𒋛𒅁𒅀 (in-si-ib-ia) for the compound form nswt-bjtj from a Ramesside-era Hittite letter.

Noun

 * 1) king of Upper Egypt
 * 2) king of (Upper and Lower) Egypt, especially as a divine power (as opposed to, which refers to a particular incarnation that holds that power)
 * 3) * Stela of Ity, British Museum, Egyptian Antiquities, 586:
 * "egy"

Usage notes
Only Egyptian kings were considered and ; foreign kings were regarded as merely  or.

Alternative forms
Much debate centers around the apparent variant form, attested from very early times, and its relation to. Some authors see it as a dialectal variant of the latter; others treat it as an entirely separate word. Schenkel instead reads in a different order as  and considers it a variant spelling of, hypothesizing that the Egyptian  is an affricate equivalent to ; a number of authors have adopted this suggestion.

In some outdated publications, was read as, , or , but these readings are now generally rejected.

Sometimes, based on the traditional etymology, a fuller reading as or  is given.