Qoppa
/ˈkɒp.ə/noun
Qoppa is an archaic Greek letter, Ϙ or ϙ, once used for the /k/ sound and later retained as a numeral meaning 90.
Did you know?Although Greek eventually replaced qoppa with kappa in ordinary writing, the Romans preserved its numeral value in the symbol for 90, ⟨Ↄ⟩.
Etymological Timeline
1st millennium BCE
Phoenician
𐤒 (qoph)
“The Phoenician letter corresponding to the consonant /q/; its name’s ultimate pictorial meaning is uncertain, though traditional interpretations connect it with a monkey or the back of the head.”
c. 800 BCE
Archaic Greek
Ϙ (qoppa)
“Greek adaptation of Phoenician qoph, representing a /k/ sound before certain back vowels.”
Classical Greek
Greek
κόππα (kóppa)
“The letter name qoppa; it gradually disappeared from ordinary Greek alphabetic writing as kappa became standard.”
Hellenistic period
Greek
ϟ (qoppa)
“A retained numeral sign representing 90 in the Greek numeral system.”
Roman period
Latin
Ↄ
“A Latin-derived numeral sign associated with the inherited qoppa value of 90.”
Modern English
English
qoppa
“The conventional English name for the obsolete Greek letter Ϙ or ϙ.”