Nemeh in Pharaonic Egypt: ‘Free’ or ‘Miserable’? A Case Study of Historical Semantics

Abstract

This case study of historical semantics examines an ancient Egyptian term related to dependency and dependent labour, ‘nemeh’, along with its varied (and seemingly paradoxical) proposed translations, ranging from ‘orphan’ to ‘citizen’, from ‘deprived person’ to ‘free man’. This contribution considers nemeh through historical semantics, investigating the shared thematic background among concepts and lexical meanings which appear contradictory to modern historians and philologists – but were not so in their original social context.

Keywords

• slavery in ancient Egypt
• conceptualized freedom
• semantic range
• historical semantics
• semasiology
• semantic overlap