THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
OCTOBER 1, 1801. 
No. 78. 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS o# the NAME and ORIGIN 
of the PYRAMIDS Of EGYPT. 
Y learned friend, M. de, Sacy, has 
direfied to me lately a copy of his 
Diflertation upon the Name of the Pyramids*, 
at a time, when, as he fays, whatever con- 
cerns Egypt feems to acquire a new inte- 
reft. I perufed his learned diatribe ; but, 
as Tam not of the fame opinion about the 
etymology which he gives of that word, 
I fhall take’ the liberty to propofe another, 
at a time, when the fame country, through 
the Britifh vi€torious arms, has obtained 
for our capital an equal intereft, 
M, de Sacy, previous to his own etymo 
Jogy, has adduced thofe of feveral otliers. 
I fhall here fhortly produce them again ; 
then, after propofing the reafons why I 
diffent from his, though very ingenious, 
derivation, [ fhall propofe the reafons for 
mine. This will be done, I hope, not in 
an offenfive way, or by abufing him, but 
in a polite manner, and obligingly, as it 
becomes men of le:ters and of education. 
Concerning the word mupauis, M. de 
Sacy obferves firft, that it was derived by 
fome from aip, fire. He quotes to that 
purpofe Ammianus Marcellinus, where he 
fays: Pyramides funt turres ab imo latis-tima, 
in fummitates acutifimas definentes; que 
figura apud geometras fic appellatur, quod 
ad ignis fpeciem, te wvpis, ut nos dicimus, 
extenuatur in conum}+. But he very weil 
obferves, that this gives only a reafon of 
the firit fyllable, which is zip; not of the’ 
two others asic, or, af leaft, of the fyllable 
#z (fuppofing 15 to be merely a Greek ter- 
mination). Neverthelefs, this is the com- 
-mon opinion, fay the authors of the Uzz- 
verfal Hiftory, that the word pyramid is 
derived from the Greek pyr, or pur, fire 5 
and that thefe ftru&tures were fo called 
from their thape, afcending from a broad 
bafe, and ending im a point like a flamef. 
But fince, as it is faid, there is no reafon 
added by the ancients for the fyllable az, 
M. de Sacy proceeds further, by quoting 
the Etymologicon Magnum, according to 
* Sylveftre de Sacy, Obfervations fur le Nom 
des Pyramides. 
+ Ammian. Marcellin. lib, 22. cap 15s 
{ Hiftory of Egypt, book 1, chap. 3. in 
Daiv: Fak. Vol: i. - 
MostTuix Mac. No. 78. 
ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 
- ed by the Ifraelitic Fo/7ph. 
| No. 3, of Vou. 12. 
which, this word is derived from Mupic, 
wheat, becaufe they will have them to 
have been the Royal Granaries, conftraét- 
This et -mo- 
logy is adepted by Vufus, for this particue 
lar reafon, becaufe, he favs, wupauts has tie 
fame meafure on the firtt fyllable as supds, 
which is not the cale inatp and its deriva. 
tions*. But supds, wheat, is ds diftant from 
mupayts as mvp, fire; conlequently it is 
equally influfficient. - 
Not finding a convenient etymology in 
he Greek lanzuage, from which we receiv= 
ed this word firit, and Egypt being the 
country where the pyramids ffood, it is 
very natural to pafs to the Egyptian one. 
Now, in this languoge, piromz lignifies a 
man, and, if we believe Herodotus, it fig- 
nified anciently a diftinguifhed man, a very 
good man (ards ue'yatos). From thence, 
Kircher, and several others, quoted by De 
Sacy, derived then alfo the name pyramis. 
But M. de Sacy rejects this etymology, 
becaufe, he fays, piromi fignifies im “the 
Coptic, the daughter of the ancient Egyp- 
tian language, only a man, nvither a good 
nor a bad one, and confcequently there is 
no reafon for believing that the pyramids 
were thus called, as if they were monu- 
ments or works of great men. 
Although I myfelfam not of opinion, 
that pyramis was derived from piromi, yet 
I beg M. de Sacy’s leave to oblerve, that 
this feems to me not to bea reaton found- 
ed enough for rejecting it. For f could 
adduce a number of words from ancient 
languages, which have thus deviated from 
their primitive fignifi-ation, and bear now- 
a-days quite a different one. Caf, for 
inftance, fignified in the Lafinz language 
only acommon houfe, and even a wretched 
onet; but to-day, in Italian, it may fignify 
any houfe, even the moit elegant and {plen- 
did. One may fay, in the modern Italian, 
una cafa magnifica; or, {peaking of a fa- 
mily, ua illujire cafa, epithets which could 
never have been added to the Latin word 
cafa. On the contrary, Karl fignified, in 
the times of Charles the Great, when the 
German language began to be written, 
a ftrong,'a yalorous man. It is there- 
fore that the illultrious fon of Pepiz was 
TAD, 
* De Sacy, page 7. 
+ Gefiner, Thefaur. Ling. Latin. - 
Bb called 
