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LETTER
Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
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1998
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© Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language 1998, originally published by Oxford University Press 1998. (Hide copyright information)
Copyright
LETTER1 An alphabetic symbol such as
A or
a,
B or
b. In WRITING based on the classical Roman
ALPHABET, the separation of letters into
majuscules (
CAPITAL letters) and
minuscules (small letters), the many variant alphabets (such as for English and Spanish), the typefaces available to them, and the distinctive joined letters of cursive handwriting have produced a wide range of letter forms.
Naming letters
In the GREEK alphabet, each letter has a name that is not directly related to its sound value (
alpha,
beta,
gamma, etc.), but this practice is not common in
ROMAN-derived
ALPHABETS. The ways in which letters are referred to in English (
ay,
bee,
cee, etc.) echo those of
FRENCH, except that French
double-v is English
double-u, and the name of y may descend from the rounded
OLD ENGLISH pronunciation of that
VOWEL. Except for
h,
w, the names (
ay,
bee,
cee, etc.) have a recognizable relationship with the sounds they commonly represent. The vowel letters are named by the long values in
mate,
meet,
might,
moat,
mute, not the short values as in
pat,
pet,
pit,
pot,
putt/put. Nine
CONSONANTS in BrE and ten in AmE are named with a vowel after the sound value: with following
ee in the case of
b,
c,
d,
g,
p,
t,
v (and AmE
z) and
ay in the case of
j,
k. Six others are named with a preceding short
e:
f,
l,
m,
n,
s,
x. The remainder (
h,
q,
r,
w,
y, and BrE
zed) have individual names.
Letters as symbols
When letters are used as symbols they may operate alone, in sets, or in combination with words: (1) Alone: capitals
A,
B,
C, etc., to mark an educational or other grade,
X to indicate a mystery; small letters such as
a,
x, and
y as used in mathematical expressions. (2) In sets:
zzz in cartoons and elsewhere, to represent sleep; the thousands of letter-based abbreviations, such as
BBC,
NATO,
e.g.,
i.e., UN/U.N. (3) In combination with a word, as an
ABBREVIATION: BrE
L-plate, where
L means
Learner (such plates being attached to the front and rear of motor vehicles); AmE
T-bill, where
T means
Treasury (a reference to high-denomination promissory notes). (4) Combined with one or more words as part of a series:
B-movie in the motion-picture industry;
C minor in music. (5) Representing a shape:
X in
Charing X for the junction known as Charing Cross in London;
U-turn a turn made through 180°. Some letters operate within established conventions, such as
A,
B,
C and
X,
Y,
Z, as the opening and closing letters of the Roman alphabet, often used to refer to sets of three things taken in order.
A to Z means from the beginning to the end of something, such as a subject to be learned.
The uses of letter symbols are complex and varied, and include: economy of expression in generalizing and in labelling, mnemonic aid, the replacement and augmentation of numbers, and special effects. For example: through such formulas as
How do we get from Point A to Point B? and
Flight X is now boarding at Gate Y;
fonybas, a mnemonic list of coordinating conjunctions (
for,
or,
nor,
yet,
but,
as,
so), and
St Wapniacl, once used to help US children memorize the departments of government in the order in which they were created (
State,
Treasury,
War,
Attorney General,
Post Office,
Navy,
Interior,
Agriculture,
Commerce,
Labor); alliterative sets of three (
the three Bs for
Bach, Beethoven, Brahms), the words sometimes adapted to fit the idea and the rhythm (
the three Rs for
reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic);
A, B, C for
1, 2, 3,
B–51,
F–18 (types of US aircraft) or
4A (the top stream or track of the fourth year in a school).
Special effects
Although all letters are available for use as special symbols,
K and
X have been particularly popular for such purposes. The uses of
K include: an abbreviation meaning one thousand (from
kilo), 10K being 10,000 of a unit of currency; a token of alienness, as in
Amerika, for the US conceived as dominated by Communists or Nazis; an eye-catching spelling for words in
q and
c, as with a company called
Kwik-Fit and cartoon characters called
the Krazy Kids. The uses of
X include: a token for something unknown:
Mr X,
Substance X,
X-ray; to represent
ex-, as in
MX for
missile experimental, in
Xtra strong and
X-ellent (compare
D-grading and
D-lightful); for
Christ in
Xmas, representing the Greek letter
khi; to signify censorship:
an X-rated movie, not to be shown to minors; as the signature of an illiterate person; to mark a place on a map or where a signature should go on a paper (commonly called a cross and not necessarily identified as a letter); to represent a kiss, often in a series written in a letter.
Letters in word use and word-formation
Letter symbols are often attributive (
an A student,
Type B behaviour), and occur as abbreviations in compounds (
A-bomb,
N-test for
atomic bomb,
nuclear test). They may serve to emphasize significant words, whose full form may be taboo (
the F-word for
fuck), undesirable (
the big C for cancer), or highly significant (
the big O for the Olympics). Technical letter symbols in electrical engineering include
GeV for
gigaelectron volt and
TeV for
teravolt. Such symbols can include an
AMPERSAND:
R & D for
research and development. However, it may not always be easy to distinguish letter symbols from initialisms: in Britain,
ABC may refer to the socio-economic classes A, B, C taken together; in the 1983 general election in Canada, they meant
Anybody but Clark; in Australia, they stand for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; in Los Angeles, they have been used to mean
American-born Chinese; in military terms, they mean
atomic,
biological,
chemical.
See the entries for individual letters, A–Z, and
ACRONYM,
ACUTE ACCENT,
AITCH,
ASH,
DIACRITIC,
DIGRAPH,
ENG,
ESH,
ETH,
GRAVE ACCENT,
INITIAL,
INITIALISM,
LETTER WORD,
LITERAL,
LONG S,
ORTHOGRAPHY,
SILENT LETTER,
SPELLING,
THORN, TRANSLITERATION,
YOGH.
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Newspaper article from: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO); 5/30/2008; ; 700+ words
; ...that the writing in the letter implicating Clark matches the letters Clark previously sent...Examiners, compared the letter to 14 pages of letters and writing on seven...Clark. Most of the letters were in block-letter print. Two were in...
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Newspaper article from: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; 11/17/2001; ; 700+ words
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LETTER
Book article from: Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language
...handwriting have produced a wide range of letter forms. Naming letters In the GREEK alphabet, each letter has a name that is not directly related...kiss, often in a series written in a letter. Letters in word use and word-formation Letter...
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Letter, The
Dictionary entry from: International Dictionary of Psychoanalysis
...Freud's first allusion to the letter and its function is found in...Freud (1918b) returns to the letter and its workings. In 1927...attached to a permutation of letters. However Freud never really formulated a theory of the letter. Jacques Lacan in 1954-1957...
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Mahatma Letters
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology
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Letter of Intent
Encyclopedia entry from: Encyclopedia of Small Business
...Letter of Intent A letter of intent is a document...or several things. Letters of intent (LOIs...contractual force to the letter, but as Gosfield points out, the letter will have "contractual...disclaimer." He places letters that deal only with...
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letter of credit
Book article from: A Dictionary of Business and Management
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