Reply To: questions seeking answers to clear confusion

  • gods-child

    Member
    February 12, 2023 at 12:22 pm

    can you please clarify the meanings “Alpha” and “Omega” that you refer to

    as there is no mention prior to c1300 and c1400 respectively etymology speaking and from 1520.s in Revelation

    thus this causes more confusion

    alpha (n.)

    c. 1300, from Latin alpha, from Greek alpha, from Hebrew or Phoenician aleph (see aleph). The Greeks added -a because Greek words cannot end in most consonants.

    The sense of “beginning” of anything is from late 14c., and in this it is often paired with omega (the last letter in the Greek alphabet, representing “the end”). The sense of “first in a sequence” is from 1620s. In astronomy, the designation of the brightest star of each constellation (the use of Greek letters in star names began with Bayer’s atlas in 1603). Alpha male was in use by c. 1960 among scientists studying animals; applied to humans in society from c. 1992.

    omega (n.)

    final letter of the Greek alphabet, c. 1400, from Medieval Greek omega, from classical Greek o mega “big ‘o’ ” (in contrast to o micron “little ‘o’ “); so called because the vowel was long in ancient Greek. From o + megas “great, large, vast, big, high, tall; mighty, important” (from PIE root *meg- “great”). Used figuratively for “the last, the final” of anything (as in Revelation i.8) from 1520s.