"ushabti" meaning in English

See ushabti in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /uːˈʃabti/ [UK] Forms: ushabtiu [plural], ushabtis [plural], shabti [alternative], shawabti [alternative]
Etymology: Borrowed from Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”), by folk etymology from earlier SA-wA-b-t:y-A53 (šꜣwꜣbtj), perhaps from S-wA-b-M1 (šwꜣb, “persea (tree)”), which may have been the material they were originally made from. The variant forms shawabti, shabti are borrowed directly from the earlier Egyptian forms šꜣwꜣbtj and šꜣbtj, respectively. Etymology templates: {{bor|en|egy|wšbtj|<hiero>w-S-b-t:y-A53</hiero>|ushabti|lit=answerer|tr=wšbtj}} Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”) Head templates: {{en-noun|ushabtiu|s}} ushabti (plural ushabtiu or ushabtis)
  1. In Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife. Categories (topical): Afterlife, Ancient Egypt, Egyptian mythology Translations (figurines of servants of the deceased): 巫沙布提俑 (Wūshābùtíyǒng) (Chinese Mandarin), uszebti (Polish)

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "egy",
        "3": "wšbtj",
        "4": "<hiero>w-S-b-t:y-A53</hiero>",
        "5": "ushabti",
        "lit": "answerer",
        "tr": "wšbtj"
      },
      "expansion": "Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”), by folk etymology from earlier SA-wA-b-t:y-A53 (šꜣwꜣbtj), perhaps from S-wA-b-M1 (šwꜣb, “persea (tree)”), which may have been the material they were originally made from. The variant forms shawabti, shabti are borrowed directly from the earlier Egyptian forms šꜣwꜣbtj and šꜣbtj, respectively.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ushabtiu",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ushabtis",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shabti",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shawabti",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ushabtiu",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "ushabti (plural ushabtiu or ushabtis)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Entries with translation boxes",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Mandarin translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Terms with Polish translations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Afterlife",
          "orig": "en:Afterlife",
          "parents": [
            "Death",
            "Mythology",
            "Philosophy",
            "Religion",
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "Culture",
            "All topics",
            "Nature",
            "Society",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Ancient Egypt",
          "orig": "en:Ancient Egypt",
          "parents": [
            "Ancient Africa",
            "Ancient Near East",
            "History of Egypt",
            "Ancient history",
            "History of Africa",
            "Ancient Asia",
            "Egypt",
            "History of Asia",
            "History",
            "Africa",
            "Countries",
            "Countries in Africa",
            "Asia",
            "All topics",
            "Earth",
            "Polities",
            "Places",
            "Eurasia",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature",
            "Names",
            "Proper nouns",
            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Egyptian mythology",
          "orig": "en:Egyptian mythology",
          "parents": [
            "Ancient Egypt",
            "Mythology",
            "Ancient Africa",
            "Ancient Near East",
            "History of Egypt",
            "Culture",
            "Ancient history",
            "History of Africa",
            "Ancient Asia",
            "Egypt",
            "History of Asia",
            "Society",
            "History",
            "Africa",
            "Countries",
            "Countries in Africa",
            "Asia",
            "All topics",
            "Earth",
            "Polities",
            "Places",
            "Eurasia",
            "Fundamental",
            "Nature",
            "Names",
            "Proper nouns",
            "Terms by semantic function",
            "Nouns",
            "Lemmas"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886 September 1, The Times, p.13 col. A:",
          "text": "These little images were called in Egyptian “Ushabti,” or “Respondents,” and were in fact supposed to act as servants of the deceased, it being their duty to answer for him and serve as his substitutes when called upon to do labourer's work [...].",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:",
          "text": "The air was all at once full of Egyptian and Greek tear-bottles, Ushabti, and Sèvres.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 121:",
          "text": "Spectacular objects began to surface throughout the world; […] elaborate ivory powder boxes engraved with peacocks or pictures of lions and unicorns playing draughts, precious ushabtiu figures, the combs of an unknown princess, her red ivory jars of frankincense and eye paint, copper coffers, poison rings, diadems.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife."
      ],
      "id": "en-ushabti-en-noun-owhtIC1T",
      "links": [
        [
          "Ancient Egypt",
          "Ancient Egypt"
        ],
        [
          "figurine",
          "figurine"
        ],
        [
          "dead",
          "dead"
        ],
        [
          "person",
          "person"
        ],
        [
          "placed",
          "placed"
        ],
        [
          "tomb",
          "tomb"
        ],
        [
          "afterlife",
          "afterlife"
        ]
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "Wūshābùtíyǒng",
          "sense": "figurines of servants of the deceased",
          "word": "巫沙布提俑"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "figurines of servants of the deceased",
          "word": "uszebti"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/uːˈʃabti/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "ushabti"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "egy",
        "3": "wšbtj",
        "4": "<hiero>w-S-b-t:y-A53</hiero>",
        "5": "ushabti",
        "lit": "answerer",
        "tr": "wšbtj"
      },
      "expansion": "Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”)",
      "name": "bor"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Egyptian w-S-b-t:y-A53 (wšbtj, “ushabti”, literally “answerer”), by folk etymology from earlier SA-wA-b-t:y-A53 (šꜣwꜣbtj), perhaps from S-wA-b-M1 (šwꜣb, “persea (tree)”), which may have been the material they were originally made from. The variant forms shawabti, shabti are borrowed directly from the earlier Egyptian forms šꜣwꜣbtj and šꜣbtj, respectively.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "ushabtiu",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "ushabtis",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shabti",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "shawabti",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ushabtiu",
        "2": "s"
      },
      "expansion": "ushabti (plural ushabtiu or ushabtis)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English nouns with irregular plurals",
        "English terms borrowed from Egyptian",
        "English terms derived from Egyptian",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries with translation boxes",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned",
        "Terms with Mandarin translations",
        "Terms with Polish translations",
        "en:Afterlife",
        "en:Ancient Egypt",
        "en:Egyptian mythology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1886 September 1, The Times, p.13 col. A:",
          "text": "These little images were called in Egyptian “Ushabti,” or “Respondents,” and were in fact supposed to act as servants of the deceased, it being their duty to answer for him and serve as his substitutes when called upon to do labourer's work [...].",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1957, Lawrence Durrell, Justine:",
          "text": "The air was all at once full of Egyptian and Greek tear-bottles, Ushabti, and Sèvres.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1993, Rikki Ducornet, The Jade Cabinet, Dalkey Archive Press, page 121:",
          "text": "Spectacular objects began to surface throughout the world; […] elaborate ivory powder boxes engraved with peacocks or pictures of lions and unicorns playing draughts, precious ushabtiu figures, the combs of an unknown princess, her red ivory jars of frankincense and eye paint, copper coffers, poison rings, diadems.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "In Ancient Egypt, a figurine of a dead person, placed in their tomb to do their work for them in the afterlife."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "Ancient Egypt",
          "Ancient Egypt"
        ],
        [
          "figurine",
          "figurine"
        ],
        [
          "dead",
          "dead"
        ],
        [
          "person",
          "person"
        ],
        [
          "placed",
          "placed"
        ],
        [
          "tomb",
          "tomb"
        ],
        [
          "afterlife",
          "afterlife"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/uːˈʃabti/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "Wūshābùtíyǒng",
      "sense": "figurines of servants of the deceased",
      "word": "巫沙布提俑"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "figurines of servants of the deceased",
      "word": "uszebti"
    }
  ],
  "word": "ushabti"
}

Download raw JSONL data for ushabti meaning in English (3.1kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-02 using wiktextract (b81b832 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.