E, THE second vowel, and fifth letter of the alphabet. The letter E is most evidently derived from the old character in the ancient Hebrew and Phœnician alphabets, inverted by the Greeks to this position E, and not from the Hebrew . From the same origin is also derived the Saxon , which is the first letter in their alphabet that differs from the Latin one. It is formed by a narrower opening of the larynx than the letter A; but the other parts of the mouth are used nearly in the same manner as in that letter.
It has a long and short sound in most languages. The short sound is audible in bed, fret, den, and other words ending in consonants: its long sound is produced by a final , or an at the end of words; as in glebe, here, hire, scene, sphere, interfere, revere, sincere, &c. in most of which it sounds like ee; as also in some others by coming after i, as in believe, chief, grief, reprove, &c. and sometimes this long sound is expressed by ee, as in bleed, beer, creed, &c. Sometimes the final e is silent, and only serves to lengthen the sound of the preceding vowel, as in rag, rage, flag, flagre, bug, bugre, &c. The sound of e is obscure in the following words, oxen, heaven, bounden, fire, massacre, maugre, &c.
The Greeks have their long and short e which they call ephilon and eta. The French have at least six kinds of e: the Latins have likewise a long and short e; they also write e instead of a, as dicem for dicam, &c. and this is no doubt the reason why a is so often changed into e in the preterit tense, as, ago, egis, facio, fecit, &c.
As a numeral, E stands for 250, according to the verse,
E, quoque docentur et quinquaginta tenentur.
In music it denotes the tone e-la-mi. In the calendar it is the fifth of the dominical letters. And in sea-charts it distinguishes all the easterly points: thus, E alone denotes East; and E. by S. and E. by N. East by South, and East by North.