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[-] DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world 116 points 1 year ago

Yes

Where does the word alphabet come from?

The word alphabet comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. It was first used, in its Latin form, alphabetum, by Tertullian during the 2nd–3rd century CE and by St. Jerome.

[-] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago

I woke up at 7:00 a.m. for this and had a sudden moment of clarity out of absolutely nowhere. Thank you.

[-] gerbler@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

These little epiphanies are always fun. Like when you realise how many maths and astronomy terms are just romanised Arabic words like Algebra and Algorithm.

Another fun one that I wasn't smart enough to notice on my own is that the Hindu-Arabic numerals have the same number of angles in the symbols as the number they represent.

[-] SomeoneElseMod@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago

It’s a Christmas miracle! 😉

[-] ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

You had a Sudden Clarity Clarence moment, but you don't think in memes.

[-] rynzcycle@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago

So calling it your ABCs when you're younger isn't that far off. Interesting.

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 66 points 1 year ago

Pretty much. English borrowed it from Latin because it's posh. And Latin borrowed it from Greek because it's posh. But at the end of the day it's in the same spirit as "the ABC", or Latin "abecedarius".

[-] modeler@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

And the Greeks took it from the Phoenicians where it was Alep Bet (almost identical to the Hebrew Aleph Beth).

And these are words that start with the sound of the letter. Aleph means Ox and Beth is house.

[-] TheGreenGolem@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 year ago

It's also "ABC" ("ábécé") in Hungarian. (And I bet in a lot of other languages too.)

[-] Wilzax@lemmy.world 9 points 1 year ago

Then why do Abacuses help us count instead of spell? 🤔

[-] lvxferre@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Coincidence. The word backtracks to Greek ᾰ̓́βᾰξ / ábax "board, slab", it doesn't have to do with ABC.

[-] DillyDaily@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

Abacus comes from the Greek "Abak" meaning board or slab.

[-] pmk@lemmy.sdf.org 50 points 1 year ago

Similarly, the viking rune "alphabet" is called the Futhark, because the first letters are pronounced F, U, Þ, A, R, K.

[-] QubaXR@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Fun fact - in Polish language the word alfabet exists as a technical name of the alphabet. There is also a more casual word, often used by children: abecadło which is basically polish way of saying "The ABCs".

[-] teft@startrek.website 22 points 1 year ago

Spanish is similar. For spanish the word is abecedario.

[-] voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

English has "abecedarian", which can mean "alphabetical", "rudimentary", "elementary", "novice" or "beginner".

[-] XTL@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

Finnish word is aakkoset. Well, it has the a. It sounds like a pet name or slang for something, but as far as I know it's just nonsense.

[-] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago

We also have alfabeto though.

[-] voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

The Latin word is "abecedarium". I don't know why English adopted the Greek word.

[-] hddsx@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

I mean, English isn’t a Romance language

[-] voidMainVoid@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

True, but it does have a lot of Latinate words.

[-] Anticorp@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 year ago

Wow, I can't believe I never put that together before.

[-] TheBig2023Meltdown@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Shower thought material right there

[-] MrSilkworm@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

yes.

source: can speak Greek.

Also the first two letters of the Greek alphabet are άλφα (alpha) and βήτα (beta)

[-] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago

Not that different from us talking about “learning our ABCs”.

[-] Resol@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago

If it isn't, then where else would the word "alphabet" come from?

Oh wait, you could look at the Hebrew alphabet and pretend that the word came from its first two letters: Aleph and Bet.

[-] pohart@programming.dev 6 points 1 year ago

This is what I thought. From Hebrew.

[-] NoMoreLurking@startrek.website 15 points 1 year ago
[-] Resol@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

In all honesty, I don't know which of the two languages is older.

[-] astraeus@programming.dev 4 points 1 year ago

Hebrew is slightly older than Greek but it was also more isolated than Greek and likely did not have much influence on Greek. As another commenter pointed out, Phoenician is the accepted source for the Greek alphabet.

[-] Resol@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I guess that answers that.

[-] Wilzax@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago

No, it's a noun made from the portmanteau of the first two letters of the greek alphabet

[-] actionjbone@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago
[-] deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz 4 points 1 year ago

The best kind of correct.

[-] username_unavailable@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago

There's a series on Prime via The Great Courses Collection about the origins of language. (Almost?) all languages derive their names like this, but that's like, a throw away line in a much deeper series.

[-] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 year ago

Many Indian languages use some version of 'akshara', which means 'unchanging' or 'indestructible'. (I guess the alphabet does change, but too slowly for us to notice.) Most Indian languages start the alphabet with all the vowels, so 'first n letters' would be unpronouncable.

[-] angrystego@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

Azbuka, name of the cirillic script, also comes from the old names of the first two letters.

[-] CarlsIII@kbin.social 11 points 1 year ago

No, it’s named after the cereal

Completely wrong as is clearly named after Google parent company Alphabet

[-] takeda@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah. Little known fact, they named their company after their original product, but struggled with how to turn in profit, so they created a Google subsidiary which invented a search engine. True story.

[-] Klear@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago

I googled alphabet and apparently google got alphabetted 8 years ago?

They had the disadvantage of not being able to read until then, but look how quick they're moving now.

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 11 points 1 year ago
[-] UziBobuzi@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago
[-] casmael@startrek.website 8 points 1 year ago
[-] takeda@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

Sounds like a question asked by someone who already knows the answer.

this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2023
251 points (100.0% liked)

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