The Etymology of Gamma in Classical Greek:

The Etymology of ‘gamma’ in Ancient Greek.

Figure 1:  A capital ‘gamma’ on the left, and a small ‘gamma’ on the right.

In Classical Greek, the third letter of the alphabet is:

or:

or:

γάμμα

or:

‘gámma’

or:

‘gamma’

.  This Ancient-Greek letter is said to be cognate with the Hebrew letter:

or:

ג֣ׅימֵל

or:

‘gíymēl‘

or:

‘gimel’

.  An ancestor of Hebrew’s, Phonecian, styled this letter:

Figure 5:  This is the Phonecian symbol, gimel.

The Mathematician, and Philosopher, Bertrand Russel, asserted that the ‘gimel,’ as found in the Hebrew and Phonecian alphabets, represents a Camel.  Phonecian – especially – is a pictographic language, and this is how he interpreted the Hebrew and Phonecian letters.  However, according to the Wikipedia article concerning this topic, this interpretation of his is contested.

Figure 6:  Bertrand Russel believed that the Gimmel represented a camel.  This is contested, however.

In Classical Hebrew, the word:

גָּמָל

or:

‘gāmāl’

or:

‘gamal’

, means:

‘camel’

.  According to the Wiktionary concerning the English word:

‘camel’ 

, even this – which is almost homophonic with the Hebrew word, ‘gamal’ – is derived from a proto-semitic ancestor of Hebrew’s.

The 1^st-century A.D. Historian, Flavius Josephus, writes about a historical figure called:

Judas of Gamala

.  Gamala or Gamla[1]   or:

גַּמְלָא

remains a town – it is situated in the Golan Heights – today. According to the Wikipedia  article concerning this Ancient City, the name, ‘Gamla’ means:

The Camel

.

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[1].  The Hebrew word גַּמְלָא has a schwa beneath the Mem. This schwa can sometimes be pronounced as an obscure vowel, i.e. /ə/ and sometimes it is not pronounced at all.  Hence, the two variant transliterations: ‘Gamala’ and ‘Gamla.’  Interestingly, the name of the I.P.A. symbol /ə/ is ‘schwa.’

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Appendix:

Illustrations Used:

Figure 1:  A capital ‘gamma’ on the left, and a small ‘gamma’ on the right.  I scripted these individually in SVG, and then imported and combined them in Inkscape®.  This is that image exported as a .PNG file.

Figure 2:  Above is the Vector file that produced the exported .PNG depicted in Figure 1.  You can view the above vector file/image at my Codepen account.

Figure 3:  I scripted this small ‘gamma’ in SVG.  You can view this file at my Codepen account.

Figure 4:  I scripted this capital ‘gamma’ in SVG.  You can view this file at my Codepen account.

Figure 5:  I drew this pencil sketch of Bertrand Russel a few years ago. His forehead would need to be significantly larger.

Figure 6:  I scripted this capital ‘gamma’ in SVG.  You can view this file at my Codepen account.

Figure 6:  I scripted this Hebrew ‘gimmel’ in SVG.  You can view this file at my Codepen account.