Digamma - Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greek alphabet
Αα Alpha Νν Nu Ββ Beta Ξξ Xi Γγ Gamma Οο Omicron Δδ Delta Ππ Pi Εε Epsilon Ρρ Rho Ζζ Zeta Σσς Sigma Ηη Eta Ττ Tau Θθ Theta Υυ Upsilon Ιι Iota Φφ Phi Κκ Kappa Χχ Chi Λλ Lambda Ψψ Psi Μμ Mu Ωω Omega
History
Archaic local variants Diacritics Ligatures Numerals ϛ (6) ϟ (90) ϡ (900)
Use in other languages
Bactrian Coptic Albanian
Related topics
Use as scientific symbols
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Digamma or Wau (uppercase/lowercase Ϝ ϝ ς) was an old letter of the Greek alphabet. It was used before the alphabet converted its classical standard form. It looked like a Latin "F", but it was pronounced like "w". In the 5th century BC, people stopped using it because they could no longer pronounce the sound "w" in Greek. However, they kept it as a sign for the number "6" in the system of Greek numerals. It was originally called "Wau" because of its sound. Later, when the sound was lost, it was called "Digamma", which means "double Gamma", because it looks like a Gamma (Γ) with two hooks. The Latin letter F was also taken over from Wau.

In mathematics, the name "digamma" is used in digamma function, which is the derivative of the logarithm of gamma function (that is, ${\displaystyle (\ln \Gamma (z))'}$).^[1][2][3]

1. ↑ "Greek/Hebrew/Latin-based Symbols in Mathematics". Math Vault. 2020-03-20. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
2. ↑ Weisstein, Eric W. "Digamma Function". mathworld.wolfram.com. Retrieved 2020-10-06.
3. ↑ "Digamma Function | Brilliant Math & Science Wiki". brilliant.org. Retrieved 2020-10-06.

• Perseus Project: lexicon search for words starting with or containing digamma

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