外博词典，懂英语单词快速记忆法的在线英语词典

如同汉字起源于象形，英语字母表中的每个字母一开始都是描摹某种动物或物体形状的图画，而这些图画最后演变成为符号。但这些符号和原先被描摹之实物的形状几无相似之处。谁也不能肯定这些象形字母原先究竟代表什么。我们的解释只能是学者们基于史料作出的有根据的猜测。一般认为希腊字母乃西方所有字母，包括拉丁字母的始祖。其实希腊人的字母又是从腓尼基人那里借过来的。约在3000年前，在腓基尼字母表中字母A读如aleph，写起来形似字母V，中间再加一横，代表牛头或者牛角。以后希腊人将它倒过来写。对于古代腓尼基人来说，牛意味着财富，吃，穿，耕作都少不了它。这也许就是A被列为第一个字母的缘故。

A 英语字母表的第一个字母

英语字母 A 来自希腊字母alpha，来自腓尼基字母aleph，可能最终来自象形符号≮，表示牛头。

Etymology

A

first letter of the Roman alphabet, based on Greek alpha (see alpha). In music from c. 1600 as the name of the sixth note of the natural scale; it is the note given by a fixed-tone instrument (usually oboe or organ) to which all the instruments of an orchestra are tuned. As a blood type, 1926, denoting A agglutinogens. The A side of a two-sided record (by 1962, see side (n.)) held the material chosen for promotion. A-bomb, short for atom bomb, was in newspaper headlines by Aug. 8, 1945.

A (1)

indefinite article, form of an used before consonants, mid-12c., a weakened form of Old English an "one" (see an). The disappearance of the -n- before consonants was mostly complete by mid-14c. After c. 1600 the -n- also began to vanish before words beginning with a sounded -h-; it still is retained by many writers before unaccented syllables in h- or (e)u- but is now no longer normally spoken as such. The -n- also lingered (especially in southern England dialect) before -w- and -y- through 15c.

It also is used before nouns of singular number and a few plural nouns when few or great many is interposed.

A (2)

as in twice a day, etc., a reduced form of Old English an "on" (see on (prep.)), in this case "on each." The sense was extended from time to measure, price, place, etc. The habit of tacking a onto a gerund (as in a-hunting we will go) was archaic after 18c.