𓊃

Glyph origin

Representing a door bolt used in double doors. The bulges in the center kept the bolt restrained between two fastening rings on one door; slid from one end to the other, it would pass through a third fastening ring on the other door and so lock it. When summarized, the bulges could be reduced to a pair of rounded dots. This glyph was conventionally colored red. The phonogrammatic value derives by the rebus principle from its use as a logogram for z (“door bolt”).

Symbol

(z, s)

1. Uniliteral phonogram for z; after Old Egyptian, this phoneme merged with s, so that this glyph became an alternative phonogram for s.
2. Logogram for z (“door bolt; being; type of fish”).
3. Logogram for ḫm (“Letopolis”), by confusion with (𓋉).