[net.motss] Etymology of "lambda"

keesan@bbncca.ARPA (Morris Keesan) (12/01/83)

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    I've also wondered about the connection between the Greek letter lambda and
homosexuality.  THe only hypothesis I've been able to come up with is that the
lower-case lambda looks a lot like the Chines ideogram for "man".  I suppose it
could also be related to some appropriate physical or chemical constant that
I'm unaware of.  There's certainly no help in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate
Dictionary, which tells me that besides being a letter, lambda is also one
thousandth of a cubic centimeter, and an uncharged unstable elementary
particle with 2183 times the mass of an electron and the tendency to decay into
a nucleon and a pion.  Anyone know the real answer?

braddy@houxl.UUCP (12/02/83)

I think it is the  first greek letter of the name
of the Greek isle of Lesbos (sp?),
(and or the name of someone who lived there?),
from which comes "Lesbian".