The English name Egypt is derived from the Ancient Greek Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος), via Middle French Egypte and Latin Aegyptus. It is reflected in early Greek Linear B tablets as a-ku-pi-ti-yo. The adjective aigýpti-, aigýptios was borrowed into Coptic as gyptios, and from there into Arabic as qubṭī, back formed into قبط qubṭ, whence English Copt. The Greek forms were borrowed from Late Egyptian (Amarna) Hikuptah "Memphis", a corruption of the earlier Egyptian name
O6 t
pr D28 Z1 p
t H
(⟨ḥwt-kȝ-ptḥ⟩), meaning "home of the ka (soul) of Ptah", the name of a temple to the god Ptah at Memphis.[17] Strabo attributed the word to a folk etymology in which Aígyptos (Αἴγυπτος) evolved as a compound from Aigaiou huptiōs (Aἰγαίου ὑπτίως), meaning "below the Aegean".
Miṣr (IPA: [mi̠sˤr] or Egyptian Arabic pronunciation: [mesˤɾ]; Arabic: مِصر) is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern official name of Egypt, while Maṣr or Masar (IPA: [mɑsˤɾ]; Egyptian Arabic: مَصر) is the local pronunciation in Egyptian Arabic.[18] The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם (Mitzráyim). The oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian 𒆳 𒈪 𒄑 𒊒 KURmi-iṣ-ru miṣru,[19][20] related to miṣru/miṣirru/miṣaru, meaning "border" or "frontier".[]
The ancient Egyptian name of the country was
km m t
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km.t, which means black land, likely referring to the fertile black soils of the Nile flood plains, distinct from the deshret (⟨dšṛt⟩), or "red land" of the desert.[] It has been also speculated by some historians, such as the controversial Pan-Africanist Cheikh Anta Diop, that the name might refer to the skin tone of the Nilo-Saharan people.[] This name is commonly vocalised as Kemet, but was probably pronounced [kuːmat] in ancient Egyptian.[] The name is realised as kēme and kēmə in the Coptic stage of the Egyptian language, and appeared in early Greek as Χημία (Khēmía).[25Another name was ⟨tꜣ-mry⟩ "land of the riverbank".[] The names of Upper and Lower Egypt were Ta-Sheme'aw .
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