Here's the breakdown:
* Alpha and beta are the first two letters of the Greek alphabet.
* The word "alphabet" was formed by combining these two words, representing the whole system of writing.
However, while the word itself comes from Greek, the concept of an alphabet is much older. The first alphabets are believed to have originated in Phoenicia, which was a region in the Levant. The Phoenician alphabet is considered the ancestor of many of the alphabets we use today, including the Greek, Latin, and Cyrillic alphabets.