Quote Originally Posted by chaika
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What do you think might be the origin of the English word "alphabet". Might it be alpha beta αβ Hmmm. or alef bet? As I heard it from my former wife, her high school (in Chicago) ball game cheer was: alef bet gimmel dalet. Man, oh man, are we solid!
This is from an etymology dictionary.
1567 (implied in alphabetical), from L.L. alphabetum (Tertullian), from Gk. alphabetos, from alpha + beta, the first two letters of it, from Heb.-Phoen. aleph, pausal form of eleph "ox" + beth, lit. "house;" the letters so called because their shapes resembled or represented those objects. The Greeks added -a to the end of many Heb.-Phoenician letter names because Gk. words cannot end in most consonants.