This article is about the symbol. For the mathematical operator notated with it, see Del.
∇
The nabla symbol
The nabla is a triangular symbol resembling an inverted Greek delta:[1] or ∇. The name comes, by reason of the symbol's shape, from the Hellenistic Greek word νάβλα for a Phoenician harp,[2][3] and was suggested by the encyclopedist William Robertson Smith in an 1870 letter to Peter Guthrie Tait.[2][4][5][6][7]
The nabla symbol is available in standard HTML as ∇ and in LaTeX as \nabla. In Unicode, it is the character at code point U+2207, or 8711 in decimal notation, in the Mathematical Operators block.
It is also called del.
^Indeed, it is called anadelta (ανάδελτα) in Modern Greek.
^ ab"nabla". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^νάβλα. Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; A Greek–English Lexicon at the Perseus Project.
^Letter from Smith to Tait, 10 November 1870:
My dear Sir, The name I propose for ∇ is, as you will remember, Nabla... In Greek the leading form is ναβλᾰ... As to the thing it is a sort of harp and is said by Hieronymus and other authorities to have had the figure of ∇ (an inverted Δ).
Quoted in Oxford English Dictionary entry "nabla".
^Cargill Gilston Knott (1911). Life and Scientific Work of Peter Guthrie Tait. Cambridge University Press.
^"History of Nabla".
^Notably it is sometimes claimed to be from the Hebrew nevel (נֶבֶל)—as in the Book of Isaiah, 5th chapter, 12th sentence:
"וְהָיָה כִנּוֹר וָנֶבֶל תֹּף וְחָלִיל וָיַיִן מִשְׁתֵּיהֶם וְאֵת פֹּעַל יְהוָה לֹא יַבִּיטוּ וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו לֹא רָאוּ"—, but this etymology is mistaken; the Greek νάβλα comes from the Phoenician to which נֶבֶל is cognate. See: "nable". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
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equation Quaternions Biquaternions Hamiltonian path Icosian calculus Nablasymbol Versor Coining the word 'tensor' Coining the word 'scalar' cis notation...
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