Tsade (also spelled Ṣādē or Tzadi or Sadhe or Tzaddik) is the eighteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew Tsadi and Arabic ﺹ. Its oldest sound value is probably sˤ, although there is a variety of pronunciation in different modern Semitic languages and their dialects. It represents the coalescence of three Proto-Semitic "emphatic consonants" in Canaanite. Arabic, which kept the phonemes separate, introduced variants of and to express the three (see , ). In Aramaic, these emphatic consonants coalesced instead with ʻayin and ṭēt, respectively, thus Hebrew ereẓ ארץ (earth) is arʻāʼ ארע in Aramaic.

The Phoenician letter is continued in the Greek Sampi Ϡ , Zeta ζ, and San Ϻ and in Etruscan 𐌑 Ś. It may have inspired the form of the letter Tse in the Glagolitic alphabet.

The corresponding letter of the Ugaritic alphabet is 𐎕 ṣade.

Hebrew speakers may also call this letter Tsadiq (meaning "righteous person"; see Tzadik), though this use probably originated from a fast recitation of the alphabet (i.e., "tsadi, qoph" -> "tsadiq, qoph").

Origins

The origin of Tsade is unclear. It may have come from a Middle Bronze Age glyph based on a pictogram of a plant, perhaps a papyrus plant, or a fish hook (in Modern Hebrew, "tsad" means "[he] hunt[ed]", and Arabic "sad" means "to fish" or "to hunt").

Hebrew Tsadi

Orthographic variants
position in word	Various Print Fonts			Cursive Hebrew	Rashi Script
	Serif	Sans-serif	Monospaced
non final	צ	צ	צ
final	ץ	ץ	ץ

Name

Another spelling of the name includes Tsadik as well as using a "z" instead of the "s" being Tzadi or Tzadik.

Pronunciation

In modern Hebrew, tzadi represents a voiceless alveolar affricate (ʦ). This is the same in Yiddish language. Historically, it likely represented a pharyngealized /sˤ/; Yemenite Jews still pronounce it this way.

Variations

Tzadi, like Kaph, Mem, Pe, and Nun, has a final form, used at the end of words. Its shape changes from this: צ to this: ץ. The pronunciation is not changed.

Significance

In gematria, Tzadi represents the number 90. Its final form represents 900 but this is rarely used, Tav, Tav, and Kuf (400+400+100) being used instead.

A geresh can also be placed after it ('צ), giving it the IPA sound //. This is most commonly seen in the Hebrew צ'יפּסים, meaning chips.

As an abbreviation, it stands for tzafon, North.

Tzadi is also one of the seven letters which receive a special crown (called a tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah. See Shin, Ayin, Teth, Nun, Zayin, and Gimmel.

Arabic Ṣad

The letter is named ṣad; standard pronunciation: [sˤ]. It is written in several ways depending in its position in the word:

See also

• Ṣ
• Z → Usage