Given the close proximity of Israel to Egypt, the fact that Egypt was a powerful ancient culture, and the fact that several biblical passages (including the lengthy Joseph narrative) are set in Egypt, it is no surprise that Egyptian words made their way into the Hebrew language (Egyptian and Hebrew). It is perhaps surprising that the total number of Egyptian loans is actually relatively small, especially if we accept the biblical account that the Israelites resided in Egypt for several generations.

Among the Egyptian loans most commonly met in the biblical text are פַּרְעֹה parʿō ‘Pharaoh…