Samek (ם):

By: Crawford Howell Toy , Isaac Broydé

The fifteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Its name may be connected with "samek" ="prop," "support." On the original shape of the letter see Alphabet . "Samek" belongs to the group of sibilants, with other members of which it interchanges, and its pronunciation is identical with that of the English surd "s." It occurs only as a radical, never as a formative element. As a numeral, "samek" (in the later period) has the value of 60.