H

H, the eighth letter of the English alphabet. It is properly a guttural aspirate semi-vowel, and indicates a breathing or forcible emission of the breath. Ben Johnson styles it "rarely other than an aspiration in power, though a letter in forme." By Bishop Wilkins, again, it is regarded as a guttural vowel, or sound formed in the throat by a full emission of the breath. Our H in form is the same as the uncial Greek eta (Η); but it properly represents the H of the Chaldee, Syriac, and Hebrew alphabets, which is also the eighth letter in each. H is sometimes mute in English, as in hour, honour, honest, hospital, &c.; or when united with g, as in right, fought, &c. H, as an old Latin numeral letter, denotes 200; and with a dash above it, ($\backslash bar\{H\}$) 200,000. In Latin, as an abbreviation, H stands for homo, hæres, hora, &c.; thus, H. B. = hæres bonorum; H. A. = Hadrianus; H. H. = hæredes; H. A. Q. = hic acquiescit.