Capital Letter A
The first letter in the English alphabet,as in those of all the modern Indo-European tongues. The Latin alphabet also commences with a, and the Greek with a similar letter, alpha. In Sanscrit the vowels are classified by grammarians separately from the consonants. The vowels are placed first, and two sounds of a, the first a very short one, intermediate between a and u, as in the word Veda,and the other long, as in the first syllable of Brahman, head the list. In the Semitic, also, more accurately called the Syro-Arabian, family of languages, a letter with the a sound first in order. Thus the Hebrew alphabet commences with Aleph followed in succession by Beth, Gimel, Daleth, designations which at once suggest the names of the Greek letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. The comparative originality of the Hebrew series is shown by the fact that the appellations of the letters have meanings which the original forms of the characters are supposed roughly to represent: thus, Aleph signifies an ox, Beth a house, Gimel a camel, and Daleth a door. These terms are properly Aramaean. The old Hebrew, the Aramaean,and the Greek letters seem to have come from the Phoenician, a Syro-Arabian tongue. The Phoenician letters, again, as Gesenius suggests, may have been derived from the Egyptian hieroglyphics.
A as a symbol stands for
- In Logic: A universal affirmative.
- In Music: The 6th note of the diatonic scale of C major, corresponding to the la of the Italians and the French.
- In Heraldry: The chief in an escutcheon.
- In Pharmacy: a or aa is a contraction of the Greek preposition urn (ma), and has two meaning! : (i.) of each (ingredient) separately; or (ii.) in quantities of the same weight or the same measure.
- In Botany: According to the method of notation in botanical drawings proposed by Mr.Ferdinand Bauer, and followed by Endlicher in his Iconographia Generum Planetarum , for a flower before expansion, while A 1 is a flower excluded.
- In Nautical language: A I = a vessel of the first class, excellently built. Figuratively: Anything highly excellent, the best of its class.
- In Mathematics: A and the other letters of the alphabet are used, e.g., in Euclid, to represent lines, angles, points,etc. In Algebra, a and the other first letters of the alphabet are used to express known quantities, and the last letters to express such as are unknown.
- In Law or arguments: the first letters of the alphabet are used to indicate persons in cases supposed or stated for illustration: as A promises B to pay C.