Noun
honorific transposition (countable and uncountable, plural honorific transpositions)
(linguistics, Egyptology) A shift in the sign order of a compound word or common phrase, to make certain religiously significant terms (e.g. nswt, nṯr, rꜥ) appear at the front of the word or phrase.
The Egyptian idiom ḥm-nṯr ("servant of a god" = "priest") is written: which would appear to read *nṯr-ḥm. However, this phrase shows honorific transposition of the nṯr glyph.Other examples of this same phenomenon include:
The word nswt ("king") is written instead of the incorrect
The term mdw-nṯr ("god's speech" = "hieroglyphs") is written instead of the incorrect
The royal name z-n-wsrt (Senwosret) is written instead of the incorrect
The royal name mry-rꜥ (Meryre) is written instead of the incorrect