ἦτα

Forms

ἦτᾰ (êta) n (indeclinable)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Phoenician 𐤇 (ḥ), the Semitic name of the eighth letter of the alphabet.^[1][2][3][4] Rosół compares Biblical Hebrew חֵית (ḥêṯ), written ηθ (ēth) in Greek transcription, and Beekes and Frisk also cite the Hebrew name.^[3][2][5] The original meaning of the Semitic name is uncertain.^[3]

The Greek name was probably at first ἧτα (hêta), with a rough breathing, a form that a scholiast on Dionysius Thrax records.^[3][6] Its final -α is secondary, on the model of ἄλφα (álpha), γάμμα (gámma), δέλτα (délta) and λάμβδα (lámbda).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Attic of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, in the comic poet Callias and in Plato, and in the Hippocratic treatise on head wounds.^[3][7][2][8]

Semantic evolution

In most local alphabets of the 5th century BC and earlier the letter stood for the sound /h/, and in others, among them the Ionic alphabet that became the common Greek one, for a long /ɛː/.^[6][9] Euripides and Agathon describe its shape in verse.^[6] As a numeral it stood for eight.^[6][10] The Epistle of Barnabas reads the eighteen men of Abraham's household as iota (ten) and eta (eight), the first letters of the name of Jesus.^[10]

The name was pronounced [hɛːta] at first, [ɛːta] after the Classical period, and [ita] after the Hellenistic period.^[11] Modern Greek ήτα (íta) is a learned form of the ancient name, for the seventh letter of the alphabet.^[11] The English name eta goes back to it.^[12]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – The comic poet Callias uses the letter name, and Euripides describes the letter's shape.^[3][6][7]
• 5th–4th century BC – Plato and the Hippocratic writers use it.^[2][6][8]
• 2nd century AD – A papyrus from Egypt uses it.^[10]
• Modern Greek – The learned ήτα (íta) names the seventh letter.^[11]

Meanings

Noun

1. Eta, the seventh (originally eighth) letter of the Greek alphabet (Η, η).^[6][4][2]
2. As a numeral, eight.^[6][10]

Related words

• ἄλφα (álpha)
• βῆτα (bêta)
• θῆτα (thêta)
• ἰῶτα (iôta)
• English eta

Usage notes

Zonaras explains the name from the shape of the letter: laid on its side, it shows an iota and a tau.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e 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
3. ^ a b c d e f g Rosół, Rafał (2013), Frühe semitische Lehnwörter im Griechischen, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang
4. ^ a b Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
5. ^ Frisk, Hjalmar (1960–1972), Griechisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3 vols, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge
8. ^ a b Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
9. ^ Babiniotis, Georgios (2010), Ετυμολογικό λεξικό της νέας ελληνικής γλώσσας [Etymological Dictionary of Modern Greek], Athens: Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας
10. ^ a b c d Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
11. ^ a b c Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
12. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Pseudo-Zonaras, Lexicon, ed. Johann August Heinrich Tittmann (1808), Iohannis Zonarae Lexicon, Leipzig: Crusius