Is the root meaning of NTR/Natjir (God) - wonder, shake, force, power, rise, tremble, animate?

[Rakovsky]

After considering in my last message whether NTR is related to heaven (Nut) and the celestial waters (Nunet), I looked for words in other languages in the Afro-Asiatic family that could show a common root meaning.

First, I looked at Budge's dictionary and noted that it mentions among other words:

• Netr - strength, force;
• Netrer - power, divinity

SOURCE: An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary, Volume 1 By Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge

I note that Budge said that NTR could be pronounced either as Neter or as Nether. And on page 408 he puts Nether as a separate entry
Nether - Natron,
Scholars commonly propose that NTR is related to the word Natron. Natron was the cleansing agent used in embalming. The Greeks referred to Nektar at one point in the Greek language as a chemical poured into the nose of a hero or deity, referring perhaps to embalming in Egypt.

Here is the sign for Natron, which uses the flag sign for a divine being and puts it in a linen bag:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Natron_(hieroglyph)

Next, I looked at dictionaries for the other major language groups in the Afroasiatic family (Cush-ite, Berber, Chadic, Semitic). I also looked for words with K and L, not just T and R, because at some point Egyptians changed pronunciation sometimes from K to T and L to R from the phonetics of their ancestors. Let's begin with Semitic words:

Among Arabic words I found:

• Nakr- river
• Nathara – scatter
• Natron – (the chemical Sodium Bicarbonate)
• Natt - jump/jumping

Let's note in passing that Nakr, or river, is in effect moving water.


Turning to Hebrew words:
I note that some scholars consider the Hebrew Nakir ("foreign, strange, unknown") as the root word for NTR. Nakir comes from Nakar, which means to look intently at something, perceive, know, care for, regard with suspicion, scrutinize. (Source: Strong's Dictionary)

Another word though seems closer - Nathar.

• Nathar; naw-thar' a primitive root; to jump, i.e. be violently agitated; causatively, to terrify, shake off, untie:--drive asunder, leap, (let) loose, X make, move, undo.
• Nther; neth-ar' (Aramaic) corresponding to 'nathar' (5425):--shake off.
• Nether; neh'-ther from 'nathar' (5425); mineral potash (so called from effervescing with acid):--nitre.

Strong's Dictionary here gives the explanation that the word Nether (Natron) comes from the concept of Nathar, jumping, agitating, shaking, moving, because that it the effect caused with an Acid (like vinegar).

Next, let's turn to Ge'ez/Amharic:

The scholar Gabor Takacz mentioned to me that nEkur (E = schwa) means: "uncommon, marvellous, admirable, wonderful, astonishing, glorified" .

I also found:

• nekul - giddy, tottering, staggering

SOURCE: Comparative Dictionary of Geez

• ankara - causitive, regard as strange, marvel, admire, bewildered
• nakara - wonder, miracle, astonishing thing, admiration
• nakir, strange, foreign, stranger, alien, other, different, .... wonder, marvelous

Concise Dictionary of Gecez

• nattara - pulsate, throb, circulate; be excellent, pure; be strong, be sour, be boated, inflated, taut;
  
• natara - thing which throbs, pulsates; natra - cinnamon bark; container for liquids;
• nattaqa – rise up

SOURCE: Amharic – English Dictionary

• Nehka I - groan, sigh, feel for, be agitated, be tormented; nehka II - be attentive, scrutinize, reflect
• natra- be hot, be burning, be strong (beer, stew), be acid. Natrium - furnaces
• natara (Ist meaning), natra - scintillate, sparkle, glare, shimmer, flash, be seen. natr, netr - gleam, sparkle, splendor, glimmer, flash, lightning. (netra mabraq - flash of lightning). Arabic nadura - be brilliant, be radiant. Ethiopic . Te. natra sparkle, scintillate. Tna. natara spurt out. Natara (IInd meaning) - be clarified, be purified, be melted. Antara - clarify, purify, melt. netr - melted, purified, gleam, flarh. Antari - metalworker, who melts metal.
• natara - jump,
• natran – natron

SOURCE: Comparative dictionary of Geez

But it's not just enough perhaps to look at one language family. Let's also consider Berber languages, where I found:

Tamazight language

• nkr - to rise; to stand; to wake up;
• nqr to trip

SOURCE: https://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps/Tamazight/Tamazight-English-Dictionary-2007.pdf

Shilha/Tashleet

• Nkr - rise, get up, wake up;

http://friendsofmorocco.org/Docs/Tashlheet/Tash. Language Materials/Tash Dictionary/tashlheetdictionary2011.pdf

In Cush-ite languages, the connection is not as clear.
Agaw
Prof. Takacs pointed out to me that QWARA ENKERAA means love, live, demon in Agaw

Beja
nekwi - pregnant, to be

Mai Mai
Nah- to startle, show care

With Chadic languages, possibly related terms were tougher still to find. But I can tell you that in Bura, "Nyeku" means press, pat. In Hausa, Nuka means ripen. In Kirya, Nkwara means attempt, probability. In Kera, Nakte means shout.

In his own essay on the meaning of Neter, E.A. Budge notes:

From what has been said above we see that scholars take the view that the word neter may mean "renewal," or "strength," or "strong," or "to become," or some idea which suggests "renewal," and that others think its original meaning is not only unknown, but that it is impossible to find it out.

https://archive.org/stream/jstor-27899432/27899432_djvu.txt

Budge then turns to the Book of the Dead in order to propose his own answer, that it means living:

In the text of Pepi I. (line 191) we have the words : "Behold thy son Horus, to whom thou hast given birth. He
hath not placed this Pepi at the head of the dead, but he hath set him among the gods neteru"...
Now here neteru must be an adjective, and we are clearly intended to understand that the gods referred to are those which have the attribute of neteru; since the "gods neteru" are mentioned in opposition to "the dead" it seems as if we are to regard the gods as "living," i. e., to possess the quality of life.

Budge looks at passages from the 18th and 19th dynasties that use netri as an adjective: "Boy netri, heir of eternity, begetting and giving" and "God netri, self-produced, primeval matter." He concludes that in this context the adjective netri means self-produced and having a power to renew life indefinitely. This conclusion is basically a reiteration of how he described M.Pierret's view in passing.

Although his dictionary noted power and strength as meanings of Netr and Netrer Budge disputes that it can be reliably shown that Neter has those meanings:

Closely allied to nutar (neter) is another word nutra (netra), and the meaning of both was said by Renouf to be found in the Coptic NOUTE or nout, which, as we may see from the passages quoted by Tatham in his Lexicon (p. 310), is rendered by the Greek words iskhis, pakalisis and parakalein. The primary meaning of the word nout appears to be "strong," and having assumed that neter was equivalent in meaning to this word, Renouf stated boldly that neter signified "mighty," "might," "strong," and argued that it meant Power

Budge's counterargument was that it wasn't clear from Egyptian texts whether it actually meant this. For example, if the text spoke of an arm that was "neteri", the choice between the two proposed meanings was not clear an arm that was divine could also be strong and vice verse.

Let me add in conclusion that if one finds a proposal for an etymology of NTR(god) to be related to the terms of astonish, marvel, or wonderful, consider that a similar association has occurred in Russian.

The original proto-IndoEuropean word for God was Dyeus. It seems that this word has developed into the Sanskrit word Deva (god) and into the Old Slavonic word Div (Дивъ -astonishment, wonder). In modern Russian, Divo (wonder, miracle), udivlenie (удивление) astonishment, amazement, surprise, wonder
Диво https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/диво
Дивный, https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/дивный#Russian