א | aleph

The Hebrew letter א (aleph), just like Greek letter α, Latin a and Cyrillic а, was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾālep) which, in turn, was derived from 𓃾, the Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox’s head.

El Aleph (The Aleph) is a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. In this story, The Aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. In mathematics, the aleph numbers are a sequence of numbers used to represent the cardinality (or size) of infinite sets. The smallest infinite cardinal number is called ℵ₀ (aleph-naught or aleph-null).

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♉ | Taurus

♉ (Taurus) is the second astrological sign in the Western zodiac. The Sun is in this sign between 21 April and 21 May.

The symbol ♉ looks very much like the Greek letter α on its side (and vice versa) and most likely has the same origin, that is, an Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox’s head, 𓃾. Juan Eduardo Cirlot provides an alternative (or complimentary) explanation in his Dictionary of Symbols:

the fact that the sign of Taurus corresponds to the number two relates it to the principle of duality composed of the masculine (Viraj, or Yang) and the feminine (Vac, or Yin). There is also a morphological relationship between the bull, on account of its head and horns, and the waxing and waning aspects of the moon, which is further evidence of the bull’s symbolic function of invigoration, at least in the sublunary sphere. The sign of Taurus governs the throat and voice, and is in turn dominated by Venus.

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μ | mu

The Greek letter μ (mu) arose from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤌 (mēm) which, in turn, was derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph for water, 𓈖.

The lower-case μ has many uses in maths, engineering and sciences, for example:

• in coordination chemistry: μ-, a prefix for a bridging ligand
• in electromagnetism:
  • the magnetic moment and the units to express it, such as the Bohr magneton μ_B and the nuclear magneton μ_N
  • the permeability µ, measured in henries per meter (H·m⁻¹);
  • the vacuum permeability or magnetic constant µ₀, which has the exact value of 4π×10⁻⁷ H·m⁻¹
• in fluid mechanics: dynamic viscosity
• in mathematics: the Möbius function μ(n)
• in maths and physics: µ (micro-), a unit prefix in the metric system for 10⁻⁶ (one millionth)
• in particle physics: muon μ⁻ and antimuuon μ⁺ (formerly called μ-mesons)
• in pharmacology: μ-opioid receptor (MOR)
• in physics: the coefficient of friction
• in physics: the electrical_mobility of a charged particle
• in thermodynamics: chemical potential aka partial molar free energy μ_i

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ξ | xi

The Greek letter ξ (xi) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤎 (sāmek), which, in its turn, could have evolved from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓊽 (djed), representing the spinal column. Other theories say 𐤎 meant “fish” (actually showing a fish skeleton?) or “a tent peg”.

The lower-case ξ has a number of uses in maths and sciences, including

• in astronomy: the correlation function ξ(r)
• in natural product chemistry: to denote unknown configuration (which could be either α or β) at a chiral centre
• in mathematics: the remainder term of Taylor’s theorem
• in physical chemistry: the extent of reaction
• in physics: the spatial frequency (the reciprocal of the wavelength λ)

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η | eta

The Greek letter η (eta) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤇 (ḥēt) which, in turn, was derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph of courtyard, 𓉗.

The lower-case letter η has quite a few uses in maths, engineering and sciences, for instance:

• in coordination chemistry: a symbol for hapticity
• in cosmology: the baryon–photon ratio
• in mathematics: the Dedekind eta function η(τ), the Dirichlet eta function η(s), and the Weierstrass eta function η(w; Λ)
• in particle physics: symbols for eta meson (η), eta prime meson (η′), charmed eta meson (η_c) and bottom eta meson (η_b)
• in rheology: a symbol for viscosity

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δ | delta

The Greek letter δ (delta) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤃 (dālet) which, in turn, was derived from 𓉿, an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a door.

The lower-case letter δ has many uses in maths and sciences, such as:

• in astronomy: the fourth brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Mintaka is designated as δ Orionis.
• in chemistry: δ bond, a type of covalent chemical bond formed by overlapping lobes of d orbitals
• in chemistry: a symbol for partial charge, δ− or δ+
• in earth sciences: to express stable isotope ratios, for example δ²H, δ¹³C, δ¹⁸O
• in mathematics: δ, the first Feigenbaum constant (approximately 4.669201)
• in maths and science: Dirac δ function
• in neurophysiology: δ-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in pharmacology: a type of opioid receptor
• in thermodynamics: inexact differential. For example, the first law of thermodynamics is expressed as

  dU = δQ – δW

  where U is internal energy, Q is heat and W is work.

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α | alpha

The Greek letter α (alpha) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤀 (ʾālep) which, in turn, was derived from 𓃾, the Egyptian hieroglyph of an ox’s head.

The lower-case letter α has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in astronomy: the brightest star in a constellation. For instance, Betelgeuse is designated as α Orionis
• in biochemistry: α-helix, a type of protein secondary structure
• in inorganic chemistry: a symbol for certain (usually the most common) allotropes, for example α-iron, α-phosphorus, and α-sulphur
• in natural product chemistry: a stereodescriptor used in a number of different ways
• in navigation: a symbol for azimuth
• in neurophysiology: α-waves, a type of brain waves detected by electroencephalography
• in nuclear physics: alpha particle, α or α²⁺, a historical name of doubly ionised helium nuclei (He²⁺) ; α-decay is a radioactive process in which an atomic nucleus emits an α-particle
• in organic chemistry: the α-carbon is the first carbon atom attached to a functional group; α-amino acids are amino acids with an amino group bound directly to the α-carbon
• in pharmacology: α₁ and α₂, subtypes of adrenergic receptors
• in physics: a symbol for angular acceleration
• in physics: the fine-structure constant
• in zoology: α-males and α-females, the highest ranking individuals in a community of social animals

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ν | nu

Greek letter ν (nu) was derived from the ancient Phoenician letter 𐤍 (nūn) which, in turn, is believed to be derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a snake, 𓆓.

The lower-case letter ν has found many uses in maths and sciences:

• in statistics: degree of freedom
• in chemistry: the stoichiometric coefficient
• in materials science: Poisson’s ratio
• in particle physics: neutrino
• in physics: the frequency of a wave

For example, in Planck–Einstein relation, E is the energy of a photon, ν is its frequency and h is the Planck constant:

E = hν

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o | о | ο

Both Latin o and Cyrillic о originated from Greek letter ο (omicron), which, in turn, was adopted from Phoenician alphabet. According to Wikipedia, the name of Phoenician letter 𐤏 was ʿayin, meaning “eye”, its shape was that of, well, an eye, and it was ultimately derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓁹 ı͗r. (That is, “eye”.)

In many languages, o can constitute a whole word. For example, in Spanish, Italian, Catalan, Tagalog and Tok Pisin o is a conjunction meaning “or”. In Russian and some other Slavic languages, о (or o) is a preposition with a variety of meanings such as “about”, “of”, “on”, “against”, “upon”. In Scots, it is a preposition “of”. In Scottish Gaelic, “from”. In Welsh, both “of” and “from”. In Romanian, a feminine singular indefinite article. In Greek, ο is a masculine singular definite article. In Turkish, a pronoun “he”, “she”, or “it”. In Guaraní, it means “house”.

Oh! Almost forgot: in many, many languages o is an interjection. Meaning “oh” or “O”.

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