aitch

aitch

See also: Aitch.

English

Alternative forms

• haitch (dialectal or nonstandard)
• ache (rare)

Etymology

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]

Pronunciation

• enPR: āch, IPA^(key): /ˈeɪt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪtʃ

Noun

aitch (plural aitches)

1. The name of the Latin-script letter H.
   • 1773, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged, October

     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

• Often used in reference of H-dropping.

Derived terms

• aitchbone
• aitchless
• aitch-dropping

Descendants

• → Arabic: إِتْش‎ (ʾitš)
• → Greek: έιτς (éits)
• → Japanese: エイチ (eichi), dated エッチ (etchi)
• → Korean: 에이치 (eichi)
• → Persian: اِچ، هاش‎ (“English letter H”)
• → Russian: эйч (ejč, “English letter H”)
• → Thai: เอช (éech), เฮช (héech)

Translations

name of the letter H, h

Arabic: إِتْش‎ m (ʾeytš), هَا‎ f (hā) Bulgarian: хаш m (haš), ейч m (ejč) Catalan: hac (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: (English letter names are called as in English; no other standard Mandarin name exists) Czech: há (cs) n Dutch: haa (nl) m or f Esperanto: ho (eo) Faroese: há n Finnish: hoo (fi) French: âche (fr) m or f, ache (fr) m or f Galician: hache (gl) m German: Ha n Greek: έιτς n (éits) Hawaiian: hē Hindi: एच (ec) Hungarian: há (hu) Icelandic: há Ido: he (io) Irish: héis, uath Italian: acca (it) Japanese: エイチ (eichi) Korean: 에이치 (eichi) Latin: hā (la) Latvian: hā Lithuanian: ha (lt) Malay: ec Manx: hibbin Marathi: एच (ec) Middle English: ache, uhe Occitan: acha f Old English: hah, hake Persian: هاش‎ (hâš), ایچ‎ (fa) (eyč) (english) Polish: h (pl) n, samo h (pl) n (when contrasted with "ch") Portuguese: agá (pt) m Romanian: haș Russian: эйч n (ejč) (English), аш (ru) c (aš), ха (ru) n (xa) Spanish: ache (es) f Swedish: hå (sv) n Thai: เอช (th) (éech), เฮช (th) (héech) Turkish: he (tr) Ukrainian: ейч n (ejč) (English), аш c (aš), га (uk) n (ha) Vietnamese: hắt (vi), hờ (vi) Welsh: aetsh f

See also

• (Latin-script letter names) letter; a, bee, cee, dee, e, ef, gee, aitch, i, jay, kay, el, em, en, o, pee, cue, ar, ess, tee, u, vee, double-u, ex, wye, zee / zed

References

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

Anagrams

• Cathi, Chait, Chita, chati, tachi, tachi-

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Scots

Alternative forms

• itch

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /etʃ/

Numeral

aitch (plural aitches)

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

References

• https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/h