ḫntj-jmntjw

ḫntj (“foremost”) +‎ jmntjw (“westerners, i.e. the dead”), plural of jmntj (“western(er)”).

The word is first attested in the tombs of First Dynasty kings Den (dn) and Qaa (qꜣ-ꜥ), where it is associated with the dead kings. However, there is no certain evidence that it referred to a separate deity (rather than being an epithet for other deities) until the second half of the Fifth Dynasty.

• (modern Egyptological) IPA^(key): /xɛnti imɛntiuː/
  • Conventional anglicization: khenti-amentiu

 m

1. Foremost of the Westerners, an epithet used for various gods of the dead such as Osiris and Anubis
2. Khentiamentiu, a god of the dead and patron god of the necropolis at Abydos

• Old Coptic: ⳓⲛⲧⲉⲙⲛⲧ (ḫntemnt)

• James P[eter] Allen (2010) Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2nd edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, pages 92, 365.
• Smith, Mark (2017) Following Osiris: Perspectives on the Osirian Afterlife from Four Millennia, pages 65 et seq.