Etymology

yodh

Y4O1D2H4

Today it means: The tenth letter of many Semitic alphabets/abjads (Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic and others). Full definition →

Hebrew יו״ד ← Proto-Semitic *yad-
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The story

  1. Proto-Semitic · derived from*yad-“hand”
  2. Hebrew · borrowed fromיו״ד“name of the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet”
  3. English todayyodh

Borrowed from Hebrew יו״ד (yo"d, “name of the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet”), ultimately from Proto-Semitic *yad- (“hand”). That letter is used also in other Semitic alphabets; it represents the voiced palatal approximant /j/. Doublet of iota, jot, and yod.

Words from the same roots

Proto-Semitic*yad- all →

iota

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.