e
/iː/
noun
Origin
Semitic
hē — window or breath
Overview
Meaning Now
- The fifth letter of the modern English alphabet.
- A symbol representing the mathematical constant approximately equal to 2.71828.
- A musical note one step above D.
Language path
Semitic → Phoenician → Greek → Latin → English
Earliest form
he
Earliest period
c. 1050 BC
Journey
The letter 'E' is derived from the Semitic 'hē', which likely depicted a person calling out or a window. The Greeks adopted the symbol as 'epsilon' to represent the short /e/ sound, distinguishing it from 'eta'. Through Etruscan and then Latin influence, it entered the Roman alphabet, where it became the most common letter in the English language.
Evolution
- Phoenician (c. 1000 BC)
𐤄
“he”
Represented a glottal fricative consonant.
- Greek (8th century BC)
Ε
“epsilon”
Adapted as a vowel sound /e/.
- Latin (7th century BC)
E
“e”
Standardized shape in the Roman alphabet.
Connections
Related across languages
Greek
Ε (epsilon)
The letter e
Hebrew
ה (he)
The letter he
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Related to e
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.