Words & WritingGreek → English
Beta
/ˈbeɪtə/noun
The second letter of the Greek alphabet, and the label for the second stage or second kind of something.
The Greek roots
βῆτα
bêta
second Greek letter
Literally: “house, from Phoenician bēt”
Follow a root:βῆτα2 words
The story of the word
Second letter, from Phoenician bēt, house, and the ancestor of the b in this sentence. Ancient Greek said bêta; medieval and modern Greek say víta, which is why the letter now spells a v sound in Athens and why Greeks call the alphabet the alphavito. English uses it for whatever comes second: beta particle from Rutherford in 1899, beta test after the alpha test, beta blocker after the beta adrenergic receptor.
- How it travelled
- Phoenician → Ancient Greek → Latin → English
- First recorded
- late 14th century
Same family
alphabetbetatronbeta-blocker
In a sentence
The beta went out to about four hundred users and came back covered in bug reports.
A stock with a beta above one moves harder than the market in both directions.