Archaeo,

Yes there are metaphoric uses is of "ideograms"; they are not always to be taken literally. The best example is probably the pintail duck (G 39) which when written with a stroke means, not "duck" but "son" (zA). The ideogram of a piece of cloth wound on a pole (R 8) is another symbolic use, as it means "god." See also S 40, which is a staff that can be used as an ideogram for a staff of that particular shape, but also as an ideogram for "milk, cream" and "milk goddess." The last is from Allen Middle Egyptian.

I don't really think mH (V 22, variant V 23) is an ideogram, by the way. Allen lists it as a phonogram, as does, iirc, the original Gardiner list. It's a picture of a whip in any case, and with the forearm means "cubit," but with the book-roll is a verb, "to fill." Wörterbuch indicates that it is not always a unit of measure – i.e., the cubit per se, but can also mean simply “forearm” or “arm” as an anatomical term. See WB II, 120.



Lee




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/18/2008 01:23PM by Lee.