FROM THE ALPHABET TO THE ABECEDARY

• alphabet, abecedary, the alpha and the omega, "V/U" and "Y/I" in the Latin texts, ampersand, $, ?  

"ALPHABET", "ABECEDARY"

ENGLISH WORD: “alphabet”, “abecedary”.

CURRENT MEANING: an alphabet is any system of characters or signs with which a language is written. The abecedary is an inscription or table consisting of the letters of an alphabet, almost listed in order.

ORIGIN: the English word alphabet is originated from alpha and beta, the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, whereas the word abecedary comes from the first four letters of the Latin alphabet.

 

 

German abecedary. 1830 Andreas Praefcke.

"THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA"

ENGLISH WORD: “the Alpha and the Omega”.

CURRENT MEANING: if we speak of something it refers to the beginning and the end. If we are talking about someone, we want to say that he is the first and the last.

ORIGIN: it comes from the phrase “I am the alpha and the omega”, the first and the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Since the fourth century is used as Christian symbol to express the divinity of Christ. It´s an appellation of Jesus in the Book of Revelation where we can read that Christ, as well as the Father, are “the first and the last” (2,8), “the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, the begining and the end” (verses 1:8, 21:6, and 22:13). Christians understand this phrase as evidence that God has existed since the beginning of time and will continue to exist eternally.

 

 

Christ holds an alfa book with the signs and omega. Detail of the front part of a church in Kiel. Cristhoph Mewes.

"V/U" and "Y/I" in the Latin texts

ENGLISH WORD: “V/U”, “Y/I”.

CURRENT MEANING: V consonant, u vowel. Y consonant, i vowel.

ORIGIN: in the Latin alphabet only has existed a sign V (capital letter), u (small letter), that represented both sounds, the consonantal and the vocalic (VOX-CVM). The same thing happened with the sign I, i, that represented both sounds, the consonantal and the vocalic (IAM-ETIAM). Since the end of the Middle Ages, although with certain anarchy, it begins to be different in Romance languages I from J and U from V. Pierre la Ramée (1515-1572) suggested the systematization of this graphic distinction in order to make easier to students the learning of latin. The difference between the U and V was sucessful in most textbooks, the other was not so successful, although some dictionaries include it.

 

"AMPERSAND"

ENGLISH WORD: “ampersand”.

CURRENT MEANING: the symbol &.

ORIGIN: it´s a tironian sign, used to represent in shorthand the Latin coordinating conjunction et “and”. The word ampersand is a corruption of the phrase “and per se and” because the “&” sign tended to add at the end of the English alphabet.

 

  

Ampersand in plain and italics.

“$”

ENGLISH WORD: “$”.

CURRENT MEANING: the symbol of the dollar.

ORIGIN: the sestertius, an important Roman coin equivalent to two asses and a half, had the letters HS as its currency sign. The H meant in Roman numbers “two” (II), crossed by a line and the S was the abbreviation of semis “half”. The americans took the symbol of the sestertius to represent their coin, with the superposition of these two letters.

 

 

A United-States two -dolar Bill. Wikipedia. Hohum.

“?”

ENGLISH WORD: “?”.

CURRENT MEANING: the question mark.

ORIGIN: it derives from the Latin letter Q, abbreviation of the word quaestio “question”, term used by the Romans in their texts to make easier the reading when there was a question.