Daleth

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, corresponding to the sound d and used in writing Hebrew and Yiddish
2. A letter of the Hebrew alphabet that comes fourth in order, representing the consonant d in sacred and modern texts
3. The fourth character in the Hebrew writing system, often transliterated as d and written in the shape of a door

Etymology: The fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet began as a picture of a door. Its name comes from Phoenician "dlt", meaning "door", and the Phoenician script, from which the Hebrew alphabet descends, drew the letter in a shape that was meant to suggest one. The Hebrew word "délet" carries the same meaning, so the letter's name and its sense are the same from the Phoenician period onward. The same ancient word lies behind the Greek letter delta, which makes "daleth" and "delta" doublets: two forms of one word that reached different languages by different routes. Greek took the letter from the Phoenician alphabet and kept its name in a Greek shape, while the Hebrew form stayed closer to its Semitic original. The shared root goes back to a Proto-Semitic word for the same object. Hebrew writing uses "daleth" as a plain letter name, so the word has no separate life as an English term beyond its use for this character. Both forms in English are therefore loanwords from the letter's name rather than from a common everyday word.

Synonyms: dalet