The ancient Egyptian Scribe equipment hieroglyph ð (Gardiner no. Y3), or its reversed form ð (Gardiner no. Y4), portrays the equipment of the scribe. Numerous scribes used the hieroglyph in stating their name, either on papyrus documents, but especially on statuary or tomb reliefs.
The hieroglyph depicts the 3 major components of a scribe's equipment:
<div>The scribe equipment hieroglyph is often used as a determinative for items relating to writing or the scribe. Combined with the determinative for person ð (Gardiner no. A1), the hieroglyph is read as záºÂê£w, probably pronounced [øaçÃÂaw] or [øiçëu] in Old Egyptian, and [saçÃÂaw] or [saçÃÂu] following the changes in pronunciation of z in Middle Egyptian and of ê£ in Late Egyptian. By the Coptic stage of the language, this had lost its glottal stop and ending, reducing to â²¥â²Âç [sax] (pl. ⲥçâ²ÂⲩⲠ[sxwi]).</div>
Often the transliteration "sesh" appears, derived from the mistaken reading sà ¡ propagated in the dictionary and books of E. A. W. Budge. This reading is found as a phonetic complement using the signs for z and à ¡, leading to the misunderstanding. However, Old Kingdom Egyptian lacked a distinct sign for the Ạsound and the Coptic descendant shows that the original second consonant was indeed the palatalized fricative Ạnot the (alveolo-)palatal sibilant à ¡, (à ¡ being the pool-lake-basin (hieroglyph) in the Egyptian language).
<div>When used as the verb záºÂê£, the hieroglyph has a variety of related meanings: to write, to draw, to make a design, to do into writing. As the noun záºÂê£, it means: writing, inscription, written roll of papyrus, book, copy of a document, & handwriting. In plural usage: writings, letters, books, documents, archives, decrees, handwriting, the columns of a book, papers, title-deeds, registers, and literature.</div>