Stigma (ligature) facts for kids

Stigma (ϛ) is a special symbol from the Greek alphabet. It's like a combination of two Greek letters, sigma (Σ) and tau (Τ), joined together. People used Stigma when writing Greek from the Middle Ages up until the 1800s.

Besides being a combined letter, Stigma also works as a numeral symbol for the number 6. This use is actually much older. It comes from an ancient Greek letter called digamma (Ϝ), which was used as a number. Over time, the shape of digamma changed and looked a lot like the combined sigma-tau symbol. Because they looked similar, people started using Stigma for the number 6 too.

Understanding Stigma's History

Stigma has an interesting past, serving two different purposes in the Greek language. Let's explore how it came to be.

How Stigma Became a Combined Letter

The symbol ϛ started as a ligature. A ligature is when two or more letters are joined together to form a single new shape. Think of it like a shortcut in writing.

• The στ ligature (, ) became very popular.
• It was used widely in a Greek writing style called Greek minuscule.
• This style developed from the 800s and 900s onwards.
• The ligature is based on the lunate form (Ϲ) of the letter sigma.

Early printers used many ligatures, including Stigma, when printing Greek books. However, by the 1700s and 1800s, people started using fewer and fewer ligatures. The στ ligature was one of the last ones to disappear from printed Greek, around the mid-1800s.

The Meaning Behind the Name "Stigma"

The word stigma (στίγμα) comes from an old Greek word. It means "a mark," "a dot," or "a sign." It comes from the verb στίζω, which means "I puncture."

The name stigma was chosen for this specific symbol. This was likely because its sound started with "st-," just like the word itself. It also sounded similar to the name of the letter sigma.

Stigma as the Number 6

The use of Stigma as the number 6 is a separate story. It actually comes from a much older letter called digamma.

• Digamma (Ϝ) was an early Greek letter.
• It made a "w" sound in ancient Greek.
• This letter stopped being used for sounds in classical Greek times.
• But it stayed in the Greek number system.
• Its value was 6 because that was its original place in the alphabet.

Over many years, the way people wrote digamma changed. Its shape went from to , and then to or .

Because these handwritten forms looked a lot like the στ ligature, the two symbols got mixed up. People started using Stigma (ϛ) to write the number 6. Even today in Greece, you might see ΣΤʹ or στʹ used instead of ϛʹ for the number 6.

Stigma Today

In modern times, the name stigma is used for the symbol ϛ. This is true whether it's used as a combined letter or as the number 6. The term digamma is usually kept for the ancient letter that made the "w" sound. This letter is often shown as Ϝ or ϝ in modern print.

When you see lowercase stigma (ϛ) in modern fonts, it looks a bit like the final sigma (ς). However, the top loop of stigma is usually bigger and goes further to the right. You can often tell them apart by where they appear in a word:

• The combination στ (which stigma represents) never appears at the end of a word.
• The final sigma form (ς) never appears in the middle of a word.
• Final sigma is also never used as a number.

Uppercase forms of stigma as a number (Ϛ) are rare. When they do appear, they can sometimes be confused with another number symbol, koppa (Ϟϟ), which stands for 90.

Stigma has its own special codes in computers. It is found in Unicode as "Greek letter stigma" U+03DA (Ϛ) and "Greek small letter stigma" U+03DB (ϛ).

See also

In Spanish: Ϛ para niños