Hermopolitan

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Relating to the ancient Egyptian city of Hermopolis Magna on the Nile ; a person born or living in that ancient city
2. Of or connected with Hermopolis, the old Egyptian center of Thoth worship ; someone who came from or resided in that city
3. Belonging to or characteristic of the ancient city of Hermopolis in Egypt ; a man or woman who was a citizen of that place

Etymology: Hermopolis was the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city of Khmunu, on the Nile in Middle Egypt, and the adjective "Hermopolitan" simply means "of Hermopolis," just as "Athenian" means "of Athens." The city's Greek name came from Hermes, because Greek writers equated the Egyptian god Thoth, the city's chief deity, with Hermes. The Greek "polis" means "city," so the name amounts to "city of Hermes," an example of the Greeks translating a foreign god into their own pantheon. The English form is a learned borrowing from Greek through Latin, built from "Hermopolis" plus the suffix "-itan," which English uses for inhabitants and adherents of a place. Its use is mainly historical and scholarly, found in writing about Egyptian archaeology, religion and the Hermopolitan cosmogony, the creation myths centred on the city's eight primordial deities.