nṯr-nfr

Egyptian

Etymology

nṯr (“god”) +‎ nfr (“pleasing, fine, good, beautiful”), thus ‘the pleasing/fine/good/beautiful god’. The use of the term in contrast with nṯr-ꜥꜣ (“the elder god”) shows that the implication of nfr here was probably one of youthful beauty or, euphemistically, simply youth, as also seen in nfrt (“young woman”). A rendering such as ‘the youthful god’ is thus perhaps truer to the intended meaning than the traditional rendering ‘the good god’.

Pronunciation

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /nɛt͡ʃɛr nɛfɛr/
  • Conventional anglicization: netjer-nefer

Proper noun

 m

1. an epithet of the currently living king, often appended as a title either before all other titles or immediately before or after the king’s names, sometimes in contrast to nṯr-ꜥꜣ for the dead former king
2. epithet for the junior king in a coregency, in contrast to nṯr-ꜥꜣ for the senior king
3. (less commonly) an epithet for various gods, especially Osiris as king of the afterworld

References

• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1928) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎^[1], volume 2, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 361.10–362.3
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, page 142
• Allen, James Peter (2015) Middle Egyptian Literature: Eight Literary Works of the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 62