NUT

in Egyptian religion, a goddess of the sky, vault of the heavens, often depicted as a woman arched over the earth god Geb . Most cultures of regions where there is rain personify the sky as masculine, the rain being the seed which fructifies mother Earth. In Egypt, however, rain plays no role in fertility; all the useful water is on the earth (from the Nile). Egyptian religion is unique in the genders of its deities of earth and sky. As the goddess of the sky, Nut swallowed the sun in the evening and gave birth to it again in the morning. Nut was also represented as a woman wearing a waterpot or pear-shaped vessel on her head, this being the hieroglyph of her name. She was sometimes portrayed as a cow, for this was the form she took in order to carry the sun god Re on her back to the sky. On five special days preceding the New Year, Nut gave birth successively to the deities Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis (qq.v.), and Nephthys. These gods, with the exception of Horus, were commonly referred to as the children of Nut. in botany, dry, hard fruit that does not split open at maturity to release its single seed. A nut resembles an achene but develops from more than one carpel (female reproductive structure), often is larger, and has a tough, woody wall. Examples are the chestnut, hazelnut, and acorn. Although popularly called nuts, the peanut is a legume, the coconut a drupe, and the Brazil nut a seed. Apart from their importance as food for man and animals, many nuts are processed to obtain a very fine charcoal used for absorption of gases, as in gas masks and industrial filters.