Etymologically
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delta

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Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈdɛltə/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek δέλτα (délta), the name of the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet,[2][3][4] which is of Semitic origin: compare Phoenician and Hebrew dāleth, from deleth, door, originally drawn as the door of a tent.[2][3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The name of the Greek letter: probably about 1200, in the Ormulum.[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The letter was shaped like a triangle, and Herodotus used the name for the triangular land at the mouth of the Nile, a sense introduced into Greek in the 400s BC.[3][2] The Delta of the Nile is so called in English from 1555 (the 1550s),[2][6] and other river mouths of whatever shape by 1790.[3][6] Any triangular figure is from 1638.[6] An examiner's fourth-class mark is from 1911,[6] and in electrical equipment a triangular arrangement of three-phase windings from 1902.[6] Word Origins notes that the delta wing of jet aircraft was named immediately after the Second World War.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – the Greek letter.[2]
  • 1555 – the Nile Delta.[2]
  • 1638 – a triangular figure.[6]
  • 1790 – any river delta.[6]
  • 1902 – in electrical engineering.[6]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. The fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ, δ).
  2. A flat, usually triangular area of alluvial land at the mouth of a river.
  3. An object shaped like a triangle.
  4. (mathematics) A finite increment in a variable.

Word family

  • deltaic
  • delta connection
  • delta iron
  • delta particle
  • delta ray
  • delta wave
  • delta wing
  • Dirac delta function
  • deltoid
  • daleth
  • alphabet

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press