An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A → numeral system in which letters represent numbers. In an earlier system, called acrophonic, the symbols for numerals came from the first letter of the number name. Subsequently, the numerals were based on giving values to the letters of alphabet. For example α, β, γ, and δ represented 1, 2, 3, and 4; while ι, κ, λ, and μ stood for 10, 20, 30, and 40, and ρ, σ, τ, and υ for 100, 200, 300, and 400. The Greek also used the additive principle. For example 11, 12, 13, 14, and 374 were written ια, ιβ, ιγ, ιδ, and τοδ. The numbers between 1000 and 9000 were expressed by adding a subscript or superscript ι (iota) to the symbols for 1 to 9. For example ιA and ιΘ for 1000 and 9000. Numbers greater than 9999 were expressed using M, which was the myriad, 10,000. Therefore, since 123 was represented by ρκγ, 123,000 was written as M^ρκγ.

→ numeral; → system.