beth
Pluralbeths
- 1The second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, represented by the character ב.
A small dot inside the beth tells the reader to harden its sound.
Students learning the alphabet write aleph and beth on their first day.
- 2The second letter of the Aramaic alphabet, represented by the character 𐡁.
The faded ink left only the upper stroke of the beth legible on the papyrus.
Merchants signing their accounts often opened a name with a bold beth.
Note
A letter named for what it once pictured: a house. The name goes back to Proto-Semitic *bayt- "house," and the sign began as a Middle Bronze Age drawing of one, read by acrophony: the picture stood for the first sound of its own name. The same name reached Greek as beta, so beth and beta are doublets. The Hebrew and Syriac letters called beth share this story.
- 3The second letter of the Syriac alphabet, represented by the character ܒ.
The copyist joined the beth smoothly to the letter that followed it.
A learner traced the curve of the beth until the shape felt natural.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
The name comes ultimately from Proto-Semitic *bayt- ("house"), derived by acrophony from a Middle Bronze Age picture of a house. It is a doublet of beta.