Is the word Alphabet literally just a conjunction made from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet?

PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 245 points –
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Yes

Where does the word alphabet come from?

The word alphabet comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta. It was first used, in its Latin form, alphabetum, by Tertullian during the 2nd–3rd century CE and by St. Jerome.

I woke up at 7:00 a.m. for this and had a sudden moment of clarity out of absolutely nowhere. Thank you.

These little epiphanies are always fun. Like when you realise how many maths and astronomy terms are just romanised Arabic words like Algebra and Algorithm.

Another fun one that I wasn't smart enough to notice on my own is that the Hindu-Arabic numerals have the same number of angles in the symbols as the number they represent.

So calling it your ABCs when you're younger isn't that far off. Interesting.