Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!gore!jacob
From: jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Can someone tell me what NABLA means?
Message-ID: <1380006@gore.com>
Date: 18 Aug 90 05:10:00 GMT
References: <993@barsoom.nhh.no>
Reply-To: jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore)
Organization: Gore Enterprises
Lines: 17

/ lowj_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (John "Travis" Low) / Aug 17, 1990 /
> "The symbol [insert nabla here] (read, "del") is an inverted delta. In
> older books this symbol is sometimes called a "nabla" because of its
> similarity in form to an ancient Hebrew ten-stringed harp of that name."
> 
> I attempted to verify this with some references I have around the house,
> but I couldn't find anything. Sounds semi-plausible, though.

From Davidson's _The Analytical Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon_, under
"n\'evel", meaning 3: "a musical instrument, perhaps so called from its
shape [meanings 1 and 2 are "bottle" and "jar"--J]; generally considered to
have been a kind of lute".  (I don't see any forms that could be pronounced
"nabla" or "navla" that can be used as nouns...)

Jacob
--
Jacob Gore		Jacob@Gore.Com			boulder!gore!jacob