ḥsb

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /hɛsɛb/
  • Conventional anglicization: heseb

 3-lit.

1. (transitive) to break apart [Pyramid Texts and Coffin Texts]

 m

1. (medicine) bone fracture

 m

1. a quarter, one fourth (in general)
2. one quarter of a sṯꜣt (“aroura”) (equivalent to about 0.07 hectares)

Compare Arabic حَسَبَ (ḥasaba, “to calculate, to count”), Hebrew חָשַׁב (ḥāšaḇ, “to think”), and Classical Syriac ܚܫܒ (“to think, to count, to calculate”). Alternatively identical in origin to the above word (‘to break apart’, etc.) by metaphorical extension; see the usage note below.

 3-lit.

1. (transitive or rarely intransitive) to determine the number of (something); to count or calculate, to reckon
2. (transitive) to enumerate, to count out in series
3. (transitive) to reckon with or settle up with (an offender) by inflicting punishment; to get even with, to exact merited retribution on
4. (transitive) to pay back or punish (an evil deed)
5. (transitive, usually negated) to value, to care something for, to esteem (something)

It has been hypothesized that the calculation operations represented by ḥsb are distinct from those represented by jp in that ḥsb prototypically expresses reckoning by means of repeatedly breaking into halves, while jp prototypically expresses reckoning by means of counting operations.[1]

• nt-ḥsb
• rnpt-ḥsb
• ḥsbw

• Erman, Adolf, Grapow, Hermann (1929) Wörterbuch der ägyptischen Sprache‎, volume 3, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN, pages 166.6–167.15
• Faulkner, Raymond Oliver (1962) A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, Oxford: Griffith Institute, →ISBN, pages 177–178
• Hoch, James (1997) Middle Egyptian Grammar, Mississauga: Benben Publications, →ISBN, pages 3, 157
• Palma, Helena Lopez (2015) “Egyptian Fractional Numerals: The grammar of Egyptian NPs and statements with fractional number expressions” in Lingua Aegyptia, volume 23, pages 197–228