Koppa
/ˈkɒpə/noun
An archaic Greek letter, Ϙ or ϙ, once used for the sound /k/ before certain vowel sounds and later retained as a numeral for 90.
Did you know?Koppa survived in Greek numerals long after it disappeared from ordinary spelling, making it a linguistic ghost preserved by mathematics.
Etymological Timeline
c. 1000–800 BCE
Phoenician
𐤒 (qōp)
“The Phoenician letter qōp, the probable ancestral sign and name of Greek koppa; the original name’s meaning is uncertain.”
c. 800 BCE
Archaic Greek
Ϙ / ϙ (qoppa)
“A Greek alphabetic letter representing /k/, especially before the vowels ο and υ.”
c. 600–400 BCE
Ancient Greek
κόππα (kóppa)
“The letter’s Greek name; it gradually disappeared from normal alphabetic writing as kappa became standard.”
Classical–Hellenistic Greek
Greek
ϟ (koppa numeral)
“A retained numerical sign representing 90 in the Greek numeral system.”
Modern English
English
koppa
“The conventional English name for the archaic Greek letter and its numeral sign.”