Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The seventh letter of the Greek alphabet.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The seventh letter of the Greek alphabet, written H or η.
  • noun In electricity, a symbol for coefficient of magnetic hysteresis. See magnetic hysteresis.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A social outcast in Japan who is subjected to menial work, making up a class or caste of such people.
  • noun The seventh letter of the Modern Greek alphabet, the eighth in Old Greek.
  • noun physics A kind of electrically neutral meson having zero spin and isospin.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a terrorist organization organized in 1959 by student activists who were dissatisfied with the moderate nationalism of the traditional Basque party; want to create an independent homeland in Spain's western Pyrenees
  • noun the 7th letter of the Greek alphabet

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Greek ēta, of Phoenician origin; akin to Hebrew ḥêt, heth.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese 穢多 ("full of filth") (literal translation, now considered derogatory in Japan).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek ἦτα (ēta).

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Examples

  • I don't get what eta is supposed to be other than in very hand wavy terms or exactly what the "social discount rate" is supposed to be in order for that equation to make sense.

    DeLong, Dasgupta, and Stern, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • -0 / +2By the way, for some clarification, the "H" is formed from the first two letters plus the last letter of his name in Greek "eta".

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

  • -0 / +2By the way, for some clarification, the "H" is formed from the first two letters plus the last letter of his name in Greek "eta".

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

  • -0 / +2By the way, for some clarification, the "H" is formed from the first two letters plus the last letter of his name in Greek "eta".

    Original Signal - Transmitting Buzz 2008

  • 'they said!'.however. for people in the idf to start bringing up lynching? seriously, who thought that language was a good idea? apparently this eta is needed: what lynching means in that hegemonic usian context. tags: current events mood: cynical

    art and negroes and stuff. yeloson 2010

  • While the error terms eta and eps do not enter the expected value of the difference between EBM temperature anomalies and reconstructed temperature anomalies, they do enter the variance of the residual difference.

    More on Hegerl et al 2006 Non-Confidence Intervals « Climate Audit 2007

  • "De Sec'eta'y, seh, am waiting for you all at onct, Mars Ha'lison," he said; and ushering them across the big room to the Secretary's private office he swung back the heavy door and bowed them into the Presence.

    The Cab of the Sleeping Horse John Reed Scott

  • Benfeius, and will neither hear that Athene was the Dawn, nor yet that she is 'the feminine of the Zend _Thra'eta'na athwya'na_.'

    Letters to Dead Authors Andrew Lang 1878

  • Displacing 2.7 litres, the power unit named after the Greek letter "eta" also known as the symbol for efficiency developed maximum output of 125 hp at an engine speed of 4,250 rpm, with peak torque of 240 Newton-metres/177 lb-ft at just 3,250 rpm.

    Autoblog Jonathon Ramsey 2010

  • Displacing 2.7 litres, the power unit named after the Greek letter "eta" also known as the symbol for efficiency developed maximum output of 125 hp at an engine speed of 4,250 rpm, with peak torque of 240 Newton-metres/177 lb-ft at just 3,250 rpm.

    Autoblog Jonathon Ramsey 2010

Comments

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  • Ate in reverse. Also abbreviation of Estimated Time of Arrival.

    November 3, 2007