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zayin
This page is about the meaning, origin and characteristic of the symbol, emblem, seal, sign, logo or flag: zayin.
Zayin (also spelled zain or zayn or simply zay) is the seventh letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Zayin Phoenician zayin.svg, Hebrew 'Zayin ז, Aramaic Zain Zayin.svg, Syriac Zayn ܙ, and Arabic Zayn ز. It represents the sound [z].
The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek zeta (Ζ), Etruscan z Z, Latin Z, and Cyrillic Ze З.
The Phoenician letter appears to be named after a sword or other weapon. In Biblical Hebrew, zayin (זין) means "sword", and the verb lezayen (לזיין) means "to arm". In modern Hebrew slang, zayin (זין) means "penis" and lezayen (לזין) is a vulgar term which generally means to perform sexual intercourse (similar to "f*ck"), although the older meaning survives in maavak mezuyan ("armed struggle") (מאבק מזוין), kohot mezuyanim ("armed forces") (כוחות מזוינים), and beton mezuyan (בטון מזוין) ("armed, i.e., reinforced concrete"). The Proto-Sinaitic glyph may have been called ziqq, based on a hieroglyph depicting a "manacle".
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Graphical characteristics:
Symmetric, Open shape, Monochrome, Contains straight lines, Has no crossing lines.
Category: Alphabets.
zayin is part of the Phoenician alphabet group.
More symbols in Phoenician alphabet:
The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad consisting … read more »
More symbols in Alphabets:
An alphabet is a standard set of letters (basic written symbols or graphemes) that is used to write one or more languages based on the general principle that the letters represent phonemes (basic sig… read more »
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