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ABRECH.—A word of doubtful signification, tr. [Note: translate or translation.] ‘Bow the knee,’ in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] and RV [Note: Revised Version.] (Gen_41:43 ‘then he made him [Joseph] to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee; and he set him over all the land of Egypt’). The word should be either Hebrew or Egyptian. An Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] etymology has been proposed, viz. abarakku, the title of one of the highest officials in the Assyrian Empire, but no such borrowings from Assyria are known in Egypt. Hebrew affords no likely explanation. Egyptian hitherto has furnished two that are possible: (1) ‘Praise!’ but the word is rare and doubtful; (2) abrak, apparently meaning ‘Attention!’ ‘Have a care!’ (Spiegelberg). The last seems the least improbable.
F. Ll. Griffith.