azyme

[Gr. a, priv., and ζύμη (zume) = leaven. [AZYMOUS.] Unleavened bread. IMG:content-0968.png:[blocks in formation] B. B. The second letter and the first consonant in the English alphabet, as it is also in the other languages of the Aryan family spoken in Europe. The characters in use in these several tongues having come through the Greek from some old form of speech, probably the Phoenician, belonging to the Semitic (better called the Syro-Arabian) family, it was to be expected that the letter corresponding to B would occupy the same place in the Semitic as in the previously-mentioned Aryan alphabets. Investigation shows this to be the case, to a considerable extent at least. A sound and character corresponding to the English & and the Greek ( beta ), is the second letter and the first consonant in Phœnician, Hebrew, Samaritan, Aramaic, Arabic, and Coptic. In Ethiopic, however, beth stands tenth instead of second in order. Turning next to some of the Aryan languages of Asia, we find that in Armenian be is the twenty-sixth of thirty-eight letters; and in Sanscrit, Mahratta, ., bú or bă is generally placed twenty-third in the list of consonants, where it is preceded by phù and followed by bhu. Returning again to the Semitic, בֵּית ( beth ), the name given to the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is really Aramæan. Like the corresponding word in Hebrew, בַּיִת (baith), it signifies a house , to which it has some faint resemblance. The Hebrew coin letter 94, the Samaritan 9, and the Phœnician 49, have a somewhat greater one; and probably the old hieroglyph from which these symbols were abbreviated may have been the most like of all. [A, ALPHABET.] I. B, as an initial , is used 1. In designating University degrees: (a) For Lat. Bac cal aureus , as Artium Васса laureus Bachelor of Arts. (b) For Bachelor ; as B.A. Bachelor of Arts; B.D. Bachelor of Divinity; B. M. Bachelor of Medicine; B.L. Bachelor of Laws. 2. In Music: For ba . Similarly B.C. is used for ba o continuo = thorough ba . 3. In Chemistry: For the element boron , of which it is the symbol as well as the initial. II. B, as a symbol , is used 1. In Numeration , in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and even occasionally in English, for 2. But ẞ, in Greek is the diacritical mark for 2,000. In Latin B stands for 300, and B for 3,000. 2. In Music : As the seventh note of the diatonic scale. It answers to the Italian and French si . In Germany it is = B flat. IMG:content-0969.png:[blocks in formation] Ba-Babel