Prepare to laugh at me...
 

So this is slightly embarrasing, but oh well. :) I honestly had no clue that the letters Sigma Alpha Iota STOOD for something until I was initiated! I don't know WHY I didn't know...but I didn't!

Anyone else do this too? Just curious. If not, then go ahead and laugh at me. Guess I was a little clueless. :D

most greek letters stand for something, IIRC.

alpha-first
beta-second
delta-change (this is the only one imsure of)
omega-last (ex. "the alpha and the omega")
phi- golden ratio (perfection maybe?)
pi-3.14158...
lambda-wavelength (like in chem and physics?)
iota-small amount (slang)
epsilon-small negligable quantity (mathematical def)
gamma- unit of magnetic field strength equal to one-hundred-thousandth of an oersted (chem)
omicorn- micro/small

as far as what they mean to the org, is entirely different.
im looking for a site that perhaps defines the letters, but that may unintentionally give GLO secrets away. maybe thats why i cant find it. but im interested as well.

I know that most Greek Letters have a meaning, but I doubt that it holds true in the meaning of the GLO each time.

One example would be that the letter Theta means death (which is why it was used on early ecology signs), but somehow, I doubt that GLOs that use Theta have death in their title!

At least, I hope not!

That would mean Delta Gamma means "change in the unit of magnetic field strenght equal to one-hundred-thousand of an oersted":rolleyes:

Not even close :D

Apparently Pi Beta Phi means 3.14158... Second the golden ratio :rolleyes:

sigma in math means sum

When I was in high school I didn't know that the letters stood for anything. When I started to do more GLO research I figured it out though.

Let's see...so APO is First Golden Ratio Last.

Again, not even close. :D

AGD=First unit of magnetic field change equals strength equal to one-hundred-thousandth of an oersted change....:eek:

Oh man, there are no meanings for Kappa or Psi. What a shame. :rolleyes:

Hahahaha...The engineer in me has to dispute this one. I have used every letter uppercase and lowercase at least once.

Kappa--Control coefficient
Psi--phase angle

So KLP is really:
Control Coefficient Wavelength Phase Angle!!!
Sorry, just couldn't hold my excitement in! I love how that just rolls right off the tongue! Thanx DeltaBetaBaby. I needed that. :)

So, Alpha Delta Pi would be First Change 3.14158... ?






And I have to admit, when I got the First & Change, my next thought was "panties?"

hope u guys arent taking this too seriously... ;)

a lot of those definitions are from dictionary.com, so dont take them to heart. of course i dont know what they mean, if they have meanings at all.

but i do know delta=change. and u cant take that from me!

seriously. only u know what ur letters stand for. you, and ur sisters/brothers of course.

p.s. if one of ur letters is phi..take pride! the golden ratio deterines what is most aesthetically pleasing. think about that when your checking ppl out at bars. the "hot" chicks/guys' faces and bodies are the ones who fit into the golden ratio.

yes it does. we are gamma omega like to be dorky and think delta delta delta has a special meaning only to us because we changed from tnkk to alpha theta phi to delt delta delta. so we changed 3 deltas....haha.

we really are dorks....well, some of us who find that amusing anyway.:p

:eek:

Honey, when I read that I about DIED laughing! :D

Thanks for my study break entertainment! ;)

is this public information, or are u makin a joke?

and why do orgs change their names? one local on our campus was alpha something something and i think inthe early 90s they switched to theta phi beta. why is it? like a merger or something?

(edit) never mind, im reading that it was in honor of APD fraternity. but whats the sense in that?

Well Sigma Nu then... let me guess :D
(this is NOT the real meaning, you'll never hear that from me;) )

Sigma... that's easy, the sum of something.

Nu.. One of my Jewish friends told me that there's a Yiddish expression that sounds like "Nu" that means "nothing" (feel free to correct me).

So Sigma Nu is the sum of nothing.

Well this would be backward... but I guess then Phi Sigma Sigma is the "sum of perfection" :D Not bad...... not the true meaning... but hey sounds good to me !!

umm lol i know you got those meanings from dictionary.com but according to my pledge book... and 75years of tradition... they're wrong lol i don'tk now from off the topof my head- but i know that alpha- father
beta-bed.... and uh its 1 am and i can't remember most of them
zeta-edge
theta- this
iota-pie
kappa- kill
lambda- land
sigma- sit
chi- rich

those are waht i could remember but you catch my drift- one of my sisters still has her pledge book and is going to email the rest to me- so i'll give you guys a complete list of what i thought they meant anyway.... i know that in latin- nu sigma chi... is nike sun charity (but its not pronounced like that) and it means victory through loveliness.... (hence my quote)

but sairose- to answer your question- i had nooo clue what the greek alphabet meant or what most of them were except like delta in math class lol

WTF? Obviously those aren't real meanings, but they are what they stand for in math/engineering/etc. Your meanings are really random and seem more like a pronounciation key than anything.

I could be wrong, but I am guessing she is saying that her local chapter of tri-delta has had 3 name changes, so in a way, if delta = change (as of dictionary.com) it's like their local chapter has changed 3 times and they happen to now be a chapter of tri-delta.

i highly doubt that is the meaning behind the national organization.. I wouldn't know, because I'm obviously not a tri-delta :)

honeychile -- I almost spit kool-aid all over my computer screen when I read your post!!! lol

OK DeltaBetaBaby, what does "Xi" stand for in math/engineering? Anything?

I've got Phi Sigma Pi meaning "the golden ratio is the sum of 3.14...."

Not quite. :p

I didn't know, don't feel bad. Since we were new on campus, it never dawned on me that they would mean something...

My stupid moment was that I thought that we didn't have anything "secret" that everything was so open to the world that I was a little bummed during my new member period... I like drama... but now as I sit through initaition after initiation I get more and more out of it. And I've sat through my share over the last 4 years.

OK, so I looked up Tau on Dictionary.com and here's what it said (there was more but you had to subscribe or something):
TAU: An elementary particle of the lepton family, having a mass about 3,550 times that of the electron, a negative electric charge, and a mean lifetime of 3 × 10 to the (-13) seconds.

Taking that into account, AST is the First (or beginning) Sum of an elementary particle of the lepton family.

I love being a lepton. The negative charge is only for a short while!!
:D
PsychTau

alpha- father

beta- bed

gamma- go sing

delta- do

epsilon- met

zeta- edge

eta- prey

theta- this

iota- pie

kappa- kill

lambda- land

mu- men

nu- no

xi (there is no meaning)

omicron- obey

pi- pet

rho- rug

sigma- sit

tau- tell

upsilon (there is no meaning)

phi- graphic

chi- rich

psi- hipp

omega- tone

these are the real meanings from our pledge books- one of my sisters just sent them to me... and obviously they were randon because that was all i could remember at the time.....

That looks like a secret code or something! I like CHI MU!! :D
Does it say in your pledge book where these meanings come from? What did you do with these meanings? Do the other groups on your campus have the same list?

I've never seen anything like that...looks like a local thing (but I'm not a greek scholar....)

Interesting, nonetheless...
PsychTau

i'm not sure where they came from- but they've been around forever- and we are local- so idk- i'm asking some of my sisters to find out from alumni- maybe one of the founders was into greek or soemthing- i know what you mean about the meanings- i guess ijust never questioned it before... that was pretty stupid o fme- but oh well- i'll let you know what i come up with

Alpha Sigma Phi - First Sum of the Golden Ratio... :)

Obviously, I'm not giving away the REAL meaning behind our secret motto. It is safe to say that the translated words of our motto appear in everyday writing and speech (as are most mottoes). Only an initiate of Alpha Sigma Phi can derive the significance of these words into our secret motto.

Actually these are keys to pronunciation of Greek letters using common English words.

xi = as in 'xylophone' ('zie' is the common pronunciation, but 'zee' is closer to actual Greek)
upsilon = as in 'oops'

I am proud to be a member of Father Sit Father. It sounds like the sequel to Hop On Pop. :)

I think if you go back far enough, each of the greek letters actually does mean something real, because when I was pledging, one of my sisters told me that way back when, GLO's picked their letters because of their meanings. Perhaps the meanings were mixed up or lost over the years, but it seemed to me to be a good reason to choose certain letters.

Not always true!

One of my fave Chi Omega facts:

When the ladies were deciding on a name, they cut out all the letters of the Greek alpahabet and spread them on the floor. They decided the letters C and W looked the best together so that's what they picked. (I have to agree! ;) ). The meaning was decided after the letters were chosen.

heh, I think C W looks like its missing a letter... ;)

hehe.

as for us... AXW -- means first and last. of course, thats not what it means in our ritual... but its still fun to have those letters :)

My opinion is that the founders picked letters that maybe matched the meaning/purpose/motto of the group they were creating. I'm pretty certain that the Alpha in AST doesn't have the same meaning as the Alpha in ASA or AOII.

Example: I'm creating a sorority and I want the deep, sisters-only ritual meaning to be something like "Loyalty and Honor". So I might pick the greek letters Lambda for Loyalty, and Eta for Honor. My new sorority would be Lambda Eta. Or I might know that Chi is similar to kai, meaning "and". So it could be Lambda Chi Eta. Or if that sounded funny, I could add "Truth" to my motto (Loyalty, Honor, Truth) and my letters could be Lambda Eta Tau. But Loyalty, Honor, Truth isn't going to be my open motto, it's the secret meaning of my letters. I could then create an open motto to match my letters anyway. Or I could create something different.

Or if I knew enough about Latin and Greek languages, I could really get creative. But I don't, so there's the simple example.

The fact that AST's open motto (Active, Self Reliant, and Trustworthy) matches the letters A, S, and T isn't an accident. BUT, it's not the true meaning of our letters that's learned in ritual. The one's who came up with the open motto decided to match it to A, S, and T (for reasons I don't know for sure).

In short, I don't think everyone's greek letters stand for the same thing. Every Alpha doesn't mean the same in ritual, etc.

(sorry for the rambling, but the example was kinda fun to come up with!)
PsychTau

Our open motto "Do Good" matches with the greek Delta and Gamma, but it's not our secret ritual meaning.

We also have our "closed" motto, Tau Delta Eta, but that's for DGs to know the meaning of :D

no? i thought that is what it meant!! :( :(

maybe i need to be re-initiated and maybe i should pay attention this time!!

i wonder what DG really means if it doesnt mean "change in the unit of magnetic field strength equal to one-hundred-thousand of an oersted"

***dances a crazy dance***

Sounds good to me too!!!!

Rock on!

Anything for Mu?

A lot of us do that, though.....

AKL = Affiliation Kindled for Life
ASA = Aspire, Seek, Attain
AST = Active, Self Reliant, Trustworthy
DG = Do Good


and I'm sure there are more..... I think that's great. A good way to show PNMs that (a) our letters have special meaning, but not give it away and (b) demonstrate that our letters mean different things. Not only are there several meanings to the same letters, but that the group means different things to different members.