The Gutenberg Webster's Unabridged Dictionary

Part 1

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Part 2

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<hr> <page="1"> Page 1<p>

<centered><point26>A.</point26></centered>

<h1>A</h1> <Xpage=1>

<hw>A</hw> <tt>(<it>named \'be in the English, and most commonly \'84 in other languages</it>)</tt>. <def> The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek <spn>Alpha</spn>, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter (<i>Aleph</i>, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The <i>Aleph</i> was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel <i>Alpha</i> with the \'84 sound, the Ph\'d2nician alphabet having no vowel symbols.</def>

This letter, in English, is used for several different vowel sounds. See <i>Guide to pronunciation</i>, §§ 43-74. The regular long <i>a</i>, as in <i>fate</i>, etc., is a comparatively modern sound, and has taken the place of what, till about the early part of the 17th century, was a sound of the quality of \'84 (as in <i>far</i>).

<p><b>2.</b> <fld>(Mus.)</fld> <def>The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. -- A sharp (A#) is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. -- A flat (A&flat;) is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.</def>

<cs><col>A per se</col> <ety>(L. <ets>per se<ets> by itself)</ety>, <cd>one pre\'89minent; a nonesuch.</cd> <mark>[Obs.]</mark></cs>

<blockquote>O fair Creseide, the flower and <b>A per se</b>

Of Troy and Greece. <i>Chaucer.</i></blockquote>

<h1>A</h1> <Xpage=1>

<hw>A</hw> <tt>(# <i>emph</i>. #)</tt>. <p><b>1.</b> <ety>[Shortened form of <ets>an</ets>. AS. \'ben one. See <er>One</er>.]</ety> <def>An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying <i>one</i> or <i>any</i>, but less emphatically.<def> "At <i>a</i> birth"; "In <i>a</i> word"; "At <i>a</i> blow". <i>Shak</i>. <note>It is placed before nouns of the singular number denoting an individual object, or a quality individualized, before collective nouns, and also before plural nouns when the adjective <i>few</i> or the phrase <i>great many</i> or <i>good many</i> is interposed; <as>as, <ex>a</ex> dog, <ex>a</ex> house, <ex>a</ex> man; <ex>a</ex> color; <ex>a</ex> sweetness; <ex>a</ex> hundred, <ex>a</ex> fleet, a regiment; <ex>a</ex> few persons, <ex>a</ex> great many days.</as> It is used for <i>an</i>, for the sake of euphony, before words beginning with a consonant sound [for exception of certain words beginning with <i>h</i>, see <er>An</er>]; <as>as, a table, <ex>a woman</ex>, <ex>a</ex> year, <ex>a</ex> unit, <ex>a</ex> eulogy, <ex>a</ex> ewe, <ex>a</ex> oneness, such <ex>a</ex> one, etc.</as> Formally <i>an</i> was used both before vowels and consonants.</note>

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