the fifth letter of the Roman alphabet, represents historically the Semitic [symbol], which originally expressed a sound resembling that of h, but was adopted by the Greeks (and from them by the Romans) as a vowel, the pronunc. of which probably varied from the ‘mid-front’ (e) to the ‘low front’ (ę) vowels of Bell’s system. In the Roman, as in the earliest Greek alphabet, the letter represented the long as well as the short quantity of the vowel. There are reasons for believing that in OE. the short e had two sounds, possibly (e) and (e); the OE. long é seems to have been sounded approximately as (ē).
The sounds now expressed by E in standard English are the following: (1) ī in be; (2) ī in here; (3) ē in there; (4) i in acme; (5) e in bed; (6) ə in alert.
Exceptional sounds are (7) ĕi in eh! (8) i in England, English, and (9) ā occurring before r in clerk, sergeant, and in various proper names, as Berkeley, Hertford.
In unaccented syllables it has the obscure sounds: (10) ĭ in remain; (11) ĕ in moment; (12) ė in added; (13) ə in father; (14) the mere voice-glide (’) as in sadden.
In foreign words not fully naturalized certain other sounds occur: the Fr. en occas. retains in Eng. use its two sounds of (aṅ) and (æṅ), as in ennui, bon-chretien; the Fr. unaccented e preserves the sound of (ə) in words like eau-de-vie; and the Fr. é that of (e) in a few words, as café.
E is also the first element in many vowel-digraphs, most of which have more than one pronunciation.
(1) Ea is usually sounded (ī), as in bead; exceptionally as (ĕi) in break, great, steak. It frequently represents (e), in cases where that sound descends from a long vowel or diphthong, either original, as in thread, dead, or acquired in ME. through position, as in stead. When followed by r it has the sounds of (ī) as in ear, of (ē) as in pear, and of (ə) as in earth, (ā) as in heart. In final unaccented syllables it sometimes becomes (i) as in guinea.
(2) Eau, found only in words of Fr. origin, is sounded (iū) in beauty and its derivatives, and (ī) in a few proper names, as Beauchamp; in all other cases it is (ōu) or (ō), as in bureau, rouleau.
(3) Ee has the sound of (ī) as in feel, and before r that of (ī), as in peer. In been many persons sound it as (i); it has also this sound in breeches, coffee.
(4) Ei has the sound of (ī) chiefly in the combination cei, as in receive; also in teil, and in Sc. words, as teind. In other cases its usual sound is (ĕi), as in vein. In either, neither, it is variously sounded (ī) and (əi). In a few words, on account of German or Greek etymology, it is pronounced (əi), as in eider-down, ophicleide. In unaccented final syllables it becomes (ė), as in foreign, sovereign.
(5) Eo (as a digraph) is sounded (ī) in people, (e) in leopard, and (ōu) in yeoman.
(6) Eu has the sound of (iū), and when followed by r that of (iū), as in euphony, Europe; in unaccented syllables these sounds become (iu), (iu), as in euphonious, neuralgia. (After l or r the first element in these diphthongs is wholly or partially obscured: see L, R.) In a few Fr. words not fully naturalized eu retains its original sounds (ō), (ō), and (ŏ).
(7) Ew has the sounds of (iū), (iu), as in new, Matthew.
(8) Ey is sounded (ī) in key, and (ēi) in obey, they, prey; it occurs most frequently in unaccented final syllables, with the sound (i), as in donkey, money. In eye and its derivatives and compounds it is pronounced (əi).
The cases in which E is silent are very numerous.
The rule may be laid down that (except in foreign words not fully naturalized as to form) a final e is never sounded when there is another vowel in the word. The silent e is due primarily to the ME. obscure -e (:—OE. a, e, o, u, or a. Fr. e), which continued to be written long after it ceased to be sounded. In imitation of the cases in which the silent e had this historical justification, it was in 16th c. very frequently added to almost all words ending phonetically with a cons.; when the preceding vowel was short and accented, the final cons. was doubled, as in bludde, bedde for blood, bed; a mute e after a single cons. implied that the preceding vowel was long. In our present spelling the use of silent e has been greatly narrowed, but it is retained in the following cases: (1) When it serves to indicate that the vowel in the syllable is long; e.g., in wine compared with win, paste compared with past. When the quantity of the vowel is already shown by the use of a digraph, the e is no longer added, e.g., in soon, mean (in 16th c. often soone, meane), unless the final cons. is s, z, or the voiced th, as in house, breeze, sheathe. (2) When a word ends phonetically with certain consonants which custom does not permit to be written in a final position, as v, and l, r after consonants. (3) Where the silent e affects the pronunc. of a preceding c or g. (4) After s or z preceded by a cons., as in purse, pulse, corpse, bronze, furze. (5) In words like infinite, rapine, etc., where the vowel of the final syllable has become short since the establishment of the existing rules of spelling; and in words adopted from Fr. (6) In some anomalous cases of diverse origin, as are, were, come, done, gone, some, one, none. The silent e is omitted before flexional suffixes beginning with a vowel, as in moving; before -able it has been usually retained, as in moveable, loveable, unmistakeable, though many writers now prefer to omit it, esp. when the vb. is a polysyllable. Before suffixes beginning with a cons. the mute e is nearly always written; in abridgment, acknowledgment, fledgling, judgment, nursling, it is commonly omitted, but usage is divided except in the last instance; in this Dictionary the e is retained after dg, in accordance with general English analogies.
The following are illustrations of the literary use of the letter: a. simply.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gram. (1880), 6. Þa syx ongynnað of ðam stæfe e.
1668. O. Price, in Ellis, E. E. Pronunc., I. iii. (1867), 81. E soundes like, ee, in be, euen, evening, England, English, [etc.].
1865. Miss Yonge, Clever Wom. of Fam., I. x. 249. I can very easily alter the L into an E.
b. as representing the sound of which it is the usual symbol.
a. 1340. Hampole, Pr. Consc., 485. If þe child a woman be, When it es born it says ‘e, e’ … þe first letter … of Eve.
II. Used as a symbol, with reference to its place (5th) in the alphabet, or (2nd) in the series of vowels; also on various other grounds.
2. in Music. E is the name of the 3rd note of the diatonic scale of C major, corresponding to mi in the Sol-fa notation. Also the scale or key which has that note for its tonic.
1848. Rimbault, First Bk. Pianof., 54. Every black key except B-flat and E-flat.
1885. ‘S. Luska’ (H. Harland), As It Was Written, 229. A leap of the bow and fingers back to A and E.
3. in Logic: A universal negative.
1827. Whately, Logic (1850), 76.
4. Naut. ‘E. The second class of rating on Lloyd’s books for the comparative excellence of merchant ships’ (Adm. Smyth).
5. Math. The lower-case e or e denotes: a. The quantity 2.71828…, the base of Napier’s system of logarithms. b. The ECCENTRICITY of an ellipse.
1860. Salmon, Conic Sect., xi. (1863), 151. The quantity e is called the eccentricity of the curve.
1873. B. Williamson, Diff. Calc., i. 21. The system [of logarithms] whose base is e.
6. in Dynamics: e is the symbol of the coefficient of restitution or of elasticity.
1856. Tait & Steele, Dynamics of Particle, x. (1871), 344. Let e be the coefficient of restitution.
7. in Electricity. e stands for the electro-motive force of a single cell, E for the sum of such forces.
1885. S. P. Thompson, Electr. & Magn., § 345.
8. in Chem. E represents the element Erbium.
III. Abbreviations.
a. E. = various proper names, as Edward, Ellen; = Engineer(s) in C.E. and R.E. b. = East, a point of the compass. c. E.E., E. & O.E. (Comm.) = errors (and omissions) excepted. d. E.M. = Earl Marshal. e. e.g. = Lat. exempli gratia for the sake of example.
E, obs. form of HE; obs. Sc. form of EYE.
