Editing Tefnut (section)

==Etymology==
The name Tefnut has no certain etymology but it may be an [[onomatopoeia]] of the sound of spitting, as [[Atum]] spits her out in some versions of the creation myth. Additionally, her name was written as a mouth spitting in late texts.<ref name="Ancient Egypt page. 183">{{cite book |last1=Wilkinson |first1=Richard H. |title=The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt |date=2003 |publisher=Thames & Hudson |location=London |isbn=0-500-05120-8 |page=183 |url=https://archive.org/details/TheCompleteGodsAndGoddessesOfAncientEgypt/The%20Complete%20Gods%20and%20Goddesses%20of%20Ancient%20Egypt/page/n183/mode/2up |access-date=4 May 2022}}</ref> Other interpretations include a link to the moon or the passage of time as related to the dead. It is also possible that she is linked to Tefen, a deity of which there is little evidence of, but may share etymology as meaning "orphan and orphaness."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hlouchová |first=Marie Peterková |date=2019 |title=Protection of the sunrise Shu, Tefnut and Re in the Pyramid Texts |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27303716 |journal=Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur |volume=48 |pages=244–245 |issn=0340-2215}}</ref>

Like most [[Ancient Egyptian deities|Egyptian deities]], including her brother, Tefnut has no single [[Ideogram|ideograph]] or symbol. Her name in hieroglyphs consists of four single [[phonogram (linguistics)|phonogram]] signs t-f-n-t. Although the n phonogram is a representation of waves on the surface of water, it was never used as an [[ideogram]] or [[determinative]] for the word water (''mw''), or for anything associated with water.<ref>{{cite book|last=Betro|first=Maria Carmela|title=Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt|year=1996|publisher=Abbeville Press|isbn=0-7892-0232-8|pages=[https://archive.org/details/michelangelovati00deve/page/163 163]|language=en|url=https://archive.org/details/michelangelovati00deve|url-access=registration}}</ref>