2213: pharaoh Jan 5, 2021

Although we might think of 'pharaoh' as a title that is otherwise sort of meaningless like 'king' or 'earl'—though in truth even though have an etymological reason—natively it made sense. 'Pharaoh' instead comes to English from the Hebrew פרעה‎ (parōh) and even at this point it was basically meaningless, though some connect it with פרע meaning '(to) pay'. In Egyptian, the word was "pr ꜥꜣ" (estimated as 'par-aa') meaning literally 'big palace'. Indeed, the word originally literally referred to the residence, and not the person, but much like if someone were to say "news from the White House" to refer to the president of the USA, this got adopted as the general term for the ruler.