Nun is believed to be derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a snake(the Hebrew word for snake, nachash begins with a Nun and snake inAramaic is nun) or eel. Some have hypothesized a hieroglyph of fish in water as its origin (in Arabic, nūn means large fish or whale). The Phoenician letter was named nūn "fish", but the glyph has been suggested to descend from a hypothetical Proto-Canaanite naḥš"snake", based on the name in Ethiopic, ultimately from a hieroglyphrepresenting a snake,

(see Middle Bronze Age alphabets). Naḥš in modern Arabic literally means "bad luck". The cognate letter in Ge'ez and descended Semitic languages of Ethiopia is nehas, which also means "brass".

SignificanceEdit

In gematria, Nun represents the number 50. Its final form represents 700 but this is rarely used, Tav and Shin (400+300) being used instead.

As in Arabic, nun as an abbreviation can stand for neqevah, feminine. In medieval Rabbinic writings, Nun Sophit (Final Nun) stood for "Son of" (Hebrew ben or ibn).

Nun is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Shin, Ayin, Teth,Gimmel, Zayin, and Tzadi.

In the game of dreidel, a rolled Nun passes play to the next player with no other action.

Nūn is used as a suffix indicating present-tense plural feminine nouns; for example هِيَ تَكْتُب hiya taktub ("she writes") becomes هُنَّ تَكْتَبْنَ hunna taktabna ("they [feminine] write").

Nūn is also used as the prefix for first-person pluralimperfective/present tense verbs. Thus هُوَ يَكْتُب huwwa yaktub ("he writes") → نَحْنُ نَكْتُب naḥnu naktub ("we write")

← Kaph Lamedh Mem →
Phoenician Hebrew ל Aramaic Syriac ܠ Arabic ل‍,ل
Phonemic representation	l, ɫ
Position in alphabet	12
Numerical value	30
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek Λ Latin L Cyrillic Л

Lamed or Lamedh is the twelfth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Lāmed , Hebrew'Lāmed ל, Aramaic Lāmadh , Syriac Lāmaḏ ܠ, and Arabic Lām ل. Its sound value is [l].

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Lambda (Λ), Latin L, and Cyrillic Л.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Hebrew Lamed
  • 1.1 Pronunciation
  • 1.2 Significance
• 2 Arabic lām
• 3 Character encodings
• 4 References
• 5 External links

Hebrew Lamed[edit]

Orthographic variants
Various print fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
ל	ל	ל

Hebrew spelling: לָמֶד

Pronunciation[edit]

Lamed transcribes as an alveolar lateral approximant /l/.

Significance[edit]

Lamed in gematria represents the number 30.

With the letter Vav it refers to the Lamedvavniks, the 36 righteous people who save the world from destruction.

As an abbreviation, it can stand for litre. Also, a sign on a car with a Lamed on it means that the driver is a student of driving (the Lamed stands for lomed, learner).

As a prefix, it can have two purposes:

• It can be attached to verb roots, designating the infinitive (Daber means "speak", Ledaber means to speak).
• It can also act as a preposition meaning "to" or "for".

Arabic lām[edit]

The letter is named lām, and is written is several ways depending in its position in the word:

Position in word:	Isolated	Final	Medial	Initial
Glyph form:	ل‎	ـل‎	ـلـ‎	لـ‎

Some examples on its uses in Modern Standard Arabic. (Normally, diacritics are not written):

Lām is used as a prefix in two different ways. Lām-kasra (لـِ, /li/) is essentially a preposition meaning "to" or "for", as in لِوالدي liwālidī, "for my father". In this usage, it has become concatenated with other words to form new constructions often treated as independent words: for instance, لِماذا limāḏā, meaning "why?", is derived from لـِ li and ماذا māḏā, meaning "what?" thus getting "for what?". This construction is virtually semantically identical the equivalent in most Romance languages, e.g. French pourquoi, Spanish por qué, and Italian perché (though ché is an archaism and not in current use).

The crook and flail depicted in Egyptian iconography.

In the early days, before Israel had its own metal industries, farmers had to rely on the Philistines to sharpen their goads, as well as other metal tools, the plowshares and mattocks, forks, and axes (1 Sam. 13:21).

The image of prodding the reluctant or lazy creature made this a useful metaphor for sharp urging, such as the prick of conscience, the nagging of a mate, or the "words of the wise," which are "firmly embedded nails" in human minds (Ecclesiastes 12:11-12).^[1]

Ploughing with oxen: a miniature from an early-16th-century manuscriptheld at the British Museum. The ploughman on the right appears to carry a goad. The ox on the left appears to react to it. Note the spike or prod at the end of this goad.

We switch sides now and bring the power of Gevurah to the center. Lamed means 'goad' and in particular an ox-goad, as if we use the power of Gevurah to goad that Aleph ox, the silent letter, into a more tangible physical existence in the heart of the tree [of life]. Lamed begins the Hebrew words for both "learn" and "teach," and so encompasses the most Kabbalist of activities, study. Kabbalah has never been a path of pure sensation, but always has used study to goad us into higher consciousness. Lamed, alone of the Hebrew alphabet, reaches above the height of all the other letters. Through learning we extend ourselves above ordinary awareness

17th century Ankusha from South India.

The elephant goad, bullhook, or ankus (from Sanskrit aṅkuśa or ankusha) is a tool employed in the handling and training of elephants.^[1] It consists of a hook (usually bronze or steel) which is attached to a 60 – 90 cm (two- or three-foot) handle, ending in a tapered end.^[2][3][4][5]The cities of Los Angeles and Oakland, California, USA, have banned the use of bullhooks.^[6]

A relief at Sanchi and a fresco at the Ajanta Caves depict a three-person crew on the war elephant, the driver with an elephant goad, what appears to be a noble warrior behind the driver and another attendant on the posterior of the elephant.^[7] Nossov and Dennis (2008 p 19) report that two perfectly preserved elephant goads were recovered from an archaeological site at Taxila and are dated from 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE according to Marshall. The larger of the two is 65 cm long.^[7]

Nossov and Dennis (2008: p. 16) state:

An ankusha, a sharpened goad with a pointed hook, was the main tool for managing an elephant. Theankusha first appeared in India in the 6th-5th century BC and has been used ever since, not only there, but wherever elephants served man.^[8]

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Fabrication and construction
  • 1.1 Iconography
  • 1.2 Hinduism
  • 1.3 Buddhism
    • 1.3.1 Tattvasamgraha Tantra
• 2 Literature
• 3 References

Fabrication and construction[edit]

The handle can be made of any material, from wood to ivory, depending on the wealth and opulence of the owner. Contemporary bullhooks which are used for animal handling generally have handles made of fibreglass, metal, plastic, or wood.

The elephant goad is found in armouries and temples all across India, where elephants march in religious processions and perform in various civil capacities. They are often quite ornate, being decorated with gemstones and engravings to be appropriate for the ceremonies in which they are used.

Iconography[edit]

The Hindu god Ganesha holding an elephant goad in his right upper arm

The elephant goad is a polysemic iconographic ritual tool in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, in the inclusive rubric of Dharmic Traditions.^{[citation needed]}

The elephant has appeared in cultures across the world. They are a symbol of wisdom in Asian cultures and are famed for their memory and intelligence, where they are thought to be on par with cetaceans^[9] andhominids.^[10] Aristotle once said the elephant was "the beast which passeth all others in wit and mind".^[11]The word "elephant" has its origins in the Greek ἐλέφας, meaning "ivory" or "elephant".^[12]

In iconography and ceremonial ritual tools, the elephant goad is often included in a hybridized tool, for example one that includes elements of Vajrakila, 'hooked knife' or 'skin flail' (Tibetan: gri-gug, Sanskrit: kartika), Vajra and Axe, as well as the goad functionality for example. Ritual Ankusha were often finely wrought of precious metals and even fabricated from ivory, often encrusted with jewels. In Dharmic Traditions the goad/ankusha and rope 'noose/snare/lasso' (Sanskrit: Pāśa) are traditionally paired as tools of subjugation.^[13]

Hinduism[edit]

In the Hinduism, an elephant goad is one of the eight auspicious objects known as Astamangala and certain other religions of the Indian subcontinent. A goad is also an attribute of many Hindu gods, including Ganesha.

← Het Tet Yodh →
Phoenician Hebrew ט Aramaic Syriac ܛ Arabic ط
Phonemic representation	tˤ
Position in alphabet	9
Numerical value	9
Alphabetic derivatives of the Phoenician
Greek Θ Latin - Cyrillic Ѳ

Teth, also written as Ṭēth or Tet, is the ninth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ṭēt , Hebrew Ṭēt ט, Aramaic Ṭēth , Syriac Ṭēṯ ܛ, and Arabic Ṭāʾ ط. It is 16th in modern Arabic order. The Persian Ța is pronounced as a hard "t" sound and is the 19th letter in the modern Persian alphabet. The Phoenician letter also gave rise to the Greektheta (Θ), originally an aspirated voiceless alveolar stop but now used for the voiceless dental fricative.

Origins[edit]

Kalimah Tayyibah: Kalimah Tayyibah kalimat aṭ-ṭaiyibah (Word of Purity)

In English:

lā e la ha el lal la ma ha ma dur ra su lal la

English Translation:

There is none worthy of worship but Allah, and Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.

Hebrew Tet[edit]

Orthographic variants
Serif	sans-Serif	Monospaced	Cursive Hebrew	Rashi script
ט	ט	ט

Hebrew pronunciation[edit]

Significance[edit]

Arabic Ṭāʾ[edit]

Similar symbols[edit]

A symbol similar to the Phoenician teth is used for the tensor product, as , but this is presumably an independent development, by modification of the multiplication sign ×. The Hebrew ט is also visually similar to the letter Ʋ.

Ø (disambiguation).

Look up Θ or θ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron Δδ Delta Ππ Pi Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma Ηη Eta Ττ Tau Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon Ιι Iota Φφ Phi Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
History
Archaic local variants Diacritics Ligatures Numerals ϛ (6) ϟ (90) ϡ (900)
Use in other languages
Bactrian Coptic Albanian
Related topics
Use as scientific symbols
Book  Category  Commons
v t e

Theta (uppercase Θ or Ө, lowercase θ (which resembles digit 0 with horizontal line) or ϑ;Ancient Greek: θῆτα, thē̂ta, [tʰɛ̂ːta]; Modern: θήτα, thī́ta, [ˈθita]; UK /ˈθiːtə/, US /ˈθeɪtə/) is the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, derived from the Phoenician letter Teth . In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 9.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1 Greek
  • 1.1 Forms
• 2 Latin
• 3 Cyrillic
• 4 International Phonetic Alphabet
• 5 Mathematics and science
  • 5.1 Lower case
  • 5.2 Upper case
• 6 In its archaic form
  • 6.1 Greek mathematics
• 7 Symbolism
  • 7.1 Abbreviation
• 8 Character Encodings
• 9 See also
• 10 Notes

Greek[edit]

The alphabet on a black figurevessel, with a point-and-circle theta.

In Ancient Greek, θ represented the aspirated voiceless dental plosive /t̪ʰ/, but in Modern Greek it represents the voiceless dental fricative /θ/.

Forms[edit]

"θ" redirects here. For the letter used in IPA, see Voiceless dental fricative.

In its archaic form, θ was written as a cross within a circle ( or ), and later, as a line or point within a circle ( or ).

The form ϑ was retained by Unicode as U+03D1 ϑ "GREEK THETA SYMBOL" ("=script theta"), separate from U+03B8 θ "GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA". For the purpose of writing Greek text, the two can be font variants of a single character, but θ and ϑ are also used as distinct symbols in technical and mathematical contexts.

Latin[edit]

The name ARAÐÐOVNA on a Gaulish tombstone.

In the Latin script used for the Gaulish language, theta developed into the tau gallicum, conventionally transliterated as Ð, although the bar extends across the centre of the letter. The phonetic value of the tau gallicum is thought to have been [t͡s].

Cyrillic[edit]

The early Cyrillic letter fita (Ѳ, ѳ) developed from θ.

International Phonetic Alphabet[edit]

In the International Phonetic Alphabet, [θ] represents the voiceless dental fricative, as in thick orthin. It does not represent the consonant in the, which is the voiced dental fricative.

Mathematics and science[edit]

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(January 2011)

Lower case[edit]

The lower-case letter θ is used as a symbol for:

• A plane angle in geometry.
• A special function of several complex variables.
• One of the Chebyshev functions in prime number theory.
• The potential temperature in meteorology.
• The score of a test taker in item response theory.
• Theta Type Replication: a type of bacterial DNA replication specific to circular chromosomes.
• Threshold value of an artificial neuron.
• A Bayer designation letter applied to a star in a constellation; usually the eighth star so labelled but not necessarily the eighth brightest as viewed from Earth.
• The parameter frequently used in writing the likelihood function (Bayes theorem).
• The Watterson estimator for the population mutation rate in population genetics.
• Indicates a minimum optimum integration level determined by the intersection of GG and LL schedules. The GG-LL schedules are a tool used in analyzing the potential benefits of a country pegging their domestic currency to a foreign currency.
• The reserve ratio of banks in economic models.
• The ordinal collapsing function developed by Solomon Feferman^[1]

Upper case[edit]

The upper-case letter Θ is used as a symbol for:

• Quantity or temperature, by SI standard (in italics).
• Dimensionless temperature in transport phenomena.
• An asymptotically tight bound in the analysis of algorithms (big O notation).
• A certain ordinal number in set theory.
• Pentaquarks, exotic baryons in particle physics.
• A brain signal frequency (beta, alpha, theta, delta) ranging from 4–8 Hz.
• One of the variables known as "Greeks" in finance, representing the lost-value rate of an option over time.
• A variable indicating temperature difference in heat transfer.

In its archaic form[edit]

• In its archaic form () theta is used as a symbol for Earth.

Greek mathematics[edit]

The common usage of theta in mathematical problems began with the Greeks. They logically chose this Greek symbol since it was the next in their alphabet not yet used and was easily legible when recreating for multiple uses.

Archaic crossed forms of theta are seen in the wheel letters of Linear A, Linear B, and Egyptian hieroglyphics, the mathematical tensor product, exclusive disjunction, and direct sum operators, the identification symbol for the Earth (as already mentioned), and the Celtic cross. The circumpunct, or circled dot, is seen in a wide range of places.

Symbolism[edit]

θ (θάνατος, death) in a mosaic

• In ancient times, Tau was used as a symbol for life or resurrection, whereas the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet, theta, was considered the symbol of death.

According to Porphyry of Tyros, the Egyptians used an X within a circle as a symbolof the soul; having a value of nine, it was used as a symbol for Ennead. Johannes Lydus says that the Egyptians used a symbol for Kosmos in the form of theta, with a fiery circle representing the world, and a snake spanning the middle representing Agathos Daimon (literally: good spirit).^[2]

The Egyptians also used the symbol of a point within a circle (, the sun disc) to represent the sun, which might be a possible origin of its use as the Sun'sastrological glyph. It is worthwhile to note that θῆτα (theta) has the same numerical value in isopsephy as Ηλιος (Helios): 318.

Abbreviation[edit]

In classical Athens, it was used as an abbreviation for the Greek θάνατος (thanatos, “death”) and as it vaguely resembles a human skull,^{[citation needed]} theta was used as a warning symbol of death, in the same way that skull and crossbones are used in modern times. It survives on potsherds used by Athenians when voting for the death penalty.^[2] Petrus de Dacia in a document from 1291 relates the idea that theta was used to brand criminals as empty ciphers, and the branding rod was affixed to the crossbar spanning the circle.^[3] For this reason, use of the number theta was sometimes avoided where the connotation was felt to be unlucky - the mint marks of some Late Imperial Roman coins famously have the sum ΔΕ or ΕΔ (delta and epsilon, that is 4 and 5) substituted as a euphemism where a Θ (9) would otherwise be expected.