aitch

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See also: 'aitch, Aitch, and Aitch.

English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English ache, borrowed from Old French ache, from Vulgar Latin *acca. (Compare Italian acca.) The source is unclear, but may descend from the vowelless alphabetic sequence ha ka 'H, K' (becoming [aka] when the [h] ceased to be pronounced), as K had low frequency in Late Latin.[1] Doublet of ecchi.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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aitch (plural aitches)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter H/h.
    • 1773 October, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged:
      The word length, which contains only four sounds l e ng th, is usually spell'd thus, el ee en gee tee aitch.
    • 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 257:
      "If you've got any drawing-room manners, or a dislike to eating peas with a knife or dropping aitches, you'd better chuck 'em away. They ain't no further use."
    • 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 469:
      She frowned, hearing Lim Cheng Po's voice, so English, so refined, so very English upper-class. And often she had had to tell Joe about his aitches.
    The word hour is written with a silent aitch.
    Cockneys drop their aitches.

Usage notes

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Derived terms

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Descendants

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  • Arabic: إِتْش (ʔitš)
  • Greek: έιτς (éits)
  • → Japanese: エイチ (eichi), dated エッチ (etchi)
  • Korean: 에이치 (eichi)
  • Malay: hec
  • Persian: اِچ (, English letter H), اِیچ (eyč, English letter H)
  • Russian: эйч (ejč, English letter H)
  • Tagalog: eyts
  • Thai: เอช (éech), เฮช (héech)

Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Liberman, Anatoly (2013 August 7) “Alphabet soup, part 2: H and Y”, in Oxford Etymologist[1], Oxford University Press, retrieved 3 October 2013

Anagrams

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Scots

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Orthographically from English aitch, but phonetically a regular reflex of Middle English ache, from Old French ache, from Vulgar Latin *acca, probably an extension of earlier ha, from an unindentified source.

Pronunciation

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Numeral

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aitch (plural aitches)

  1. The name of the Latin-script letter H/h.

References

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