aitch

See also: 'aitch, Aitch, and 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. Doublet of ecchi.

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/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

• Often used in reference of H-dropping.

Derived terms

• aitchbone
• aitchless
• aitch-dropping

Descendants

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

Translations

name of the letter H, h

• Arabic: إِتْش m (ʔeytš), هَا f (hā)
• Asturian: hache (ast)
• Bengali: এইচ (eic)
• 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)
• Indonesian: ha (id)
• Irish: héis, uath
• Italian: acca (it)
• Japanese: エイチ (ja) (eichi)
• Korean: 에이치 (eichi)
• Latin: hā (la)
• Latvian: hā
• Lithuanian: ha (lt)
• Malay: hec
• 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: hache (es) f
• Swedish: hå (sv) n
• Tagalog: eyts, ha (Abakada), atse (Abecedario alphabet)
• 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

Anagrams

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

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/h.

References

• https://dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/h