COPHTI, COPTI, or COPTIS, a name given to the Christians of Egypt, who belong to the sect of Jacobites, or rather Cobites, and are descended from the ancient native population of the country.
Critics are divided as to the origin and orthography of the word. Some write it Cophth or Copti, others Cophites, Cophitæ, Copts, and so on. Scaliger derives the name from Coptos, the ancient metropolis of the Thebaid. Kircher, however, maintains that the word originally signifies "cut" or "circumscribed," and that it was given to these people because of their practice of circumcising; but this is evidently absurd, as circumcision could neither be a distinction nor a reproach in a country where the rite was generally practised. Scaliger afterwards changed his opinion, and derived the word from Αγυπτος, (quasi dicas Αε-ΓΟΙ-τος) Egypt, by retrenching the first syllable; and this is the true etymology, GOP or KOP being manifestly the basis or root of the word which the Greeks wrote Αγυπτος, and probably at first Αγυπτος. An account of the state of the Coptic population of Egypt is given under EGYPT.