θῆτα

Forms

θῆτᾰ (thêta) n, indeclinable.^[2][3] Democritus has a genitive θήτατος, and a papyrus of the 2nd century AD a plural θήτατες.^[2][4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Phoenician 𐤈 (ṭēt), the Semitic name of the letter, which Beekes and Frisk compare with the Hebrew name of the same letter.^[1][5][4][6] Rosół, who counts it among the early Semitic loanwords, notes that the original meaning of the Semitic letter name is uncertain and that the final -α is secondary, added on the model of ἄλφα (álpha), γάμμα (gámma), δέλτα (délta) and λάμβδα (lámbda).^[6] The Byzantine lexicon of Zonaras explained the name from the letter's shape, which imitates the round vault of heaven with an axis through the middle.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

The comic poet Callias is the first to name the letter, and Aristophanes has it in the Ecclesiazusae.^[6][2][3]

Semantic evolution

The letter first stood for an aspirated /tʰ/; from the Hellenistic period on it was pronounced as the fricative /θ/ that Modern Greek still has.^[8][9] Plato also mentions it, and the word was jokingly used as a nickname for Aesop, who was a θής (thḗs), a hired labourer.^[3][2]

The vernacular Greek of the Middle Ages kept θήτα (thíta) as a name of the letter, and it continues in Modern Greek θήτα (thíta).^[10][8] Latin took the name as Latin theta.^[11] The English word theta is recorded from the early 15th century; because the letter was written on ballots for a death sentence, it was sometimes used for death.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Callias, a comic poet, names the letter.^[6]
• 5th century BC – Democritus inflects the name, with a genitive in -τος.^[2][4]
• 5th to 4th century BC – Aristophanes' Ecclesiazusae mentions it.^[2][3]
• 2nd century AD – A papyrus has an inflected plural of the name.^[2]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts call it θήτα (thíta).^[10]
• Early 15th century – The English word theta is first recorded.^[12]

Meanings

Noun

1. theta, the eighth letter of the Greek alphabet (Θ, θ).^[2][3]
2. A nickname of Aesop.^[2]

Related words

• Latin theta
• English theta

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
4. ^ a b c Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
5. ^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010), Etymological Dictionary of Greek, with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 10, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b c d Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
7. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
11. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
12. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com