Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!apple!bbn.com!cosell
From: cosell@bbn.com (Bernie Cosell)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: Can someone tell me what NABLA means?
Message-ID: <59005@bbn.BBN.COM>
Date: 19 Aug 90 13:08:22 GMT
References: <993@barsoom.nhh.no> <1380006@gore.com>
Sender: news@bbn.com
Lines: 23

jacob@gore.com (Jacob Gore) writes:

}/ 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...)

That may be true, but a simple trip to a reasonable dictionary reaffirms the
derivation [we can only speculate why folks don't START these kinds of
inquiries with a look at a good dictionary...]  Webster's third unabridged
claims the Hebrew precursor is nebhel [with a hook over the 'e'] and that it is
the Hebrew word for "harp".

  /Bernie\