Is the word Alphabet literally just a conjunction made from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet?

Comments

• DontTreadOnBigfoot@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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  • PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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    • gerbler@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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    • SomeoneElseMod@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      It’s a Christmas miracle! 😉

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    • ook_the_librarian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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  • rynzcycle@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• pmk@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• QubaXR@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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”.

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  • teft@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Spanish is similar. For spanish the word is abecedario.

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    • voidMainVoid@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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    • sneezycat@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      We also have alfabeto though.

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    • XTL@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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  • voidMainVoid@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    The Latin word is “abecedarium”. I don’t know why English adopted the Greek word.

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    • hddsx@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      I mean, English isn’t a Romance language

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• MrSilkworm@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  yes source: can speak Greek.

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

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• humorlessrepost@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• Resol@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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• Wilzax@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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  • actionjbone@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Technically correct

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    • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

      The best kind of correct.

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• angrystego@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• username_unavailable@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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  • emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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• bionicjoey@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Yup

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• CarlsIII@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  No, it’s named after the cereal

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  • No_Ones_Slick_Like_Gaston@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

    Completely wrong as is clearly named after Google parent company Alphabet

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    • takeda@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ 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.

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    • Klear@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• casmael@startrek.website ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Yeah

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• UziBobuzi@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  Yes.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alphabet

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• takeda@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

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

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• tygerprints@kbin.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨years⁩ ago

  I never thought of it before, but it is a conjunction of those first two Greek letters. Or else, it's named after the soup it resembles.

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