♃

♃ U+2643, ♃ JUPITER ← ♂ [U+2642] Miscellaneous Symbols ♄ → [U+2644]

Translingual

Alternative forms

• Ƶ

Etymology

The Greek letter Zeta with an abbreviation stroke, for Ζεύς (Zeús), the Greek equivalent to the Roman god Jupiter. The form changed from Classical and early Medieval ⟨Ƶ⟩ to one with a more salient cross, ⟨♃⟩, in the 15th–16th century, at about the time that Christian crosses were added to ⟨☿⟩, ⟨♀⟩ and ⟨♄⟩, and so may have had a similar motivation.

Use of ♃ for Thursday, near the bottom of the calendar dial of this 16th-century clock-calendar.

Symbol

♃

1. (astronomy, astrology) Jupiter.
2. (alchemy) tin.
3. (alchemy, archaic) electrum.
4. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?) (botany, obsolete) herbaceous perennial plant.

   (the orbital period of Jupiter is 12 years)

5. (rare) Thursday.

   Refers to the Latin phrase dies Iovis, which literally means "Jupiter's day".

Derived terms

• (astronomy): M_♃ – Jovian mass (as a unit of measurement; more commonly M_J).

R_♃ – Jovian radius (more commonly R_J).

• (alchemy): 🜩 – tin ore.
• (alchemy): ♃⃞ (tin foil; electrum foil)

Gallery

• 
  Late Classical and Medieval forms
• 
  A modern allograph of ♃ that more clearly reflects its origin in the Greek letter 'Z'.
• 
  A decorative variant in the Netherlands
• 
  As a symbol for tin
• 
  An abstract variant
• 
  Symbol on a Tyrian-purple background
• 
  Mariner logo
• 
  Transit of Jupiter

English

Symbol

♃

1. (alchemy) tin
   • 1650, Paracelsus, “Of the Nature of Things”, in John French, transl., A New Light of Alchymie, page 74:

     If thou wilt turne ♄ into ♃ make plates of ♄, ſtrow them with Salt Armoniack, cement, and melt them, as aboveſaid, ſo will all the blackneſſe, and darkneſſe bee taken away from the Lead, and it will be in whiteneſſe like fair Engliſh Tin.

Latin

Proper noun

♃ m sg (genitive ♃vis); third declension

1. (alchemy) Abbreviation of Iuppiter (“Jupiter”).
   • 1701, Johann Christoph Sommerhoff, Lexicon pharmaceutico-chymicum latino-germanicum & germanico-latinum [Pharmaceutico-Chemical Lexicon, Latin–German and German–Latin], page 399:

     Arte ſivè Chymice parata: ut Vitriolum ♃vis, ☽næ, ♂tis, ☉lis, ♀ris

     Those prepared by art or chemically: as vitriol of Jupiter, of the Moon, of Mars, of the Sun, of Venus

   • May 18 Ideam solutionis perfeci Nempe æqualia duo salia elevant ♄ Dein hic elevat lapidem, nec non cum Iove malleabili conjunctus fit 🝏 idque in tali proportione ut ♃ sceptrum apprehendat. Tunc aquila ♃em attollet., Isaac Newton, Cambridge, Portsmouth Add. MS. 3975 (alchemical notebook):

     (please add the primary text of this quotation)

     May 18 I came up with an idea of the solution, namely, two equal salts elevate Saturn, then this elevates the stone, and also conjoined with malleable Jove it becomes the scepter of Jove and this in such a proportion that Jupiter seizes the scepter. Then the eagle raises up Jupiter.

Declension

Third-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	♃
genitive	♃vis
dative	♃vī
accusative	♃vem
ablative	♃ve
vocative	♃

Third-declension noun, singular only.

	singular
nominative	♃
genitive	♃is
dative	♃ī
accusative	♃em
ablative	♃e
vocative	♃

Derived terms

• ♃is