The Egyptian Book of the dead by P. Le Page Renouf and Edouard Naville

certainly _cleansing_, but the operation itself is generally supposed to be _washing_. This agrees with the Coptic ⲣⲁϩⲧ _a fuller_, of which the old Egyptian form is ⁂⁂. But ⲣⲁϩⲧ has also the sense of _beating_, and the operation is in many countries thought to be one of the most important duties of washerwomen. With this sense of the word I would connect the names _Rechit_ given to Isis and Nephthys, as signifying ‘mourners.’ Compare the Greek τύπτεσθαί τινα, κόπτεσθαί τινα, _to mourn a person_, and the Latin _plangere_.