gamma

Forms

gamma n (indeclinable); also gamma, gammae f (first declension)^[1][2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek γάμμα (gámma), the name of the third letter of the Greek alphabet.^[1][3][4] Köbler and Etymonline trace the Greek name to the name of a Semitic letter, which Etymonline says meant “camel”.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The OLD records it as the name of the Greek letter, used as a neuter and also as a feminine.^[1] Köbler's first source is the writings of the Roman land surveyors.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Besides the letter, the land surveyors used it for a field of rectangular shape, or of the shape of a gamma.^[2][4] In Medieval Latin it named the gamut, the musical scale, after the third letter of the Greek alphabet.^[6][4]

English has the letter name from about 1400.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius uses it for the Greek letter in a poem on letters.^[2][4]
• c. 1400 – English adopts it as the name of the Greek letter.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. The Greek letter gamma (Γ).^[1][2]
2. (surveying) A field of rectangular shape, the shape of a gamma.^[2][4]
3. (Medieval Latin, music) The gamut, the scale.^[6][4]

Word family

• gammatus

Related words

• English gamma

References

1. ^ a b c d Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ Saalfeld, Günther Alexander (1874), Index Graecorum vocabulorum in linguam latinam translatorum, Berlin: Weidmann
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill