upsilon

[ yoop-suh-lon, -luhn, uhp-; especially British yoop-sahy-luhn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

the 20th letter of the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ).
the vowel sound represented by this letter.
Also called upsilon particle. Physics. any of a family of heavy, short-lived, neutral mesons that are composed of a bottom quark and its antiquark. : Υ, υ

upsilon

/ ˈʌpsɪˌlɒn; juːpˈsaɪlən /

noun

the 20th letter in the Greek alphabet (Υ, υ), a vowel, transliterated as y or u

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Word History and Origins

Origin of upsilon¹

First recorded in 1615–25; from Late Greek ŷ psīlón, literally, “simple u ” (to distinguish it from the digraph oi, pronounced the same in Late Greek )

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Word History and Origins

Origin of upsilon¹

C17: from Medieval Greek u psilon simple u, name adopted for graphic u to avoid confusion with graphic oi, since pronunciation was the same for both in Late Greek

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