(Fr. dévoir), in Scotch Law, an insolvent debtor; a bankrupt who has made a cessio bonorum to his creditors. E

E, the second vowel, and fifth letter of the alphabet. This letter is most probably derived from the old character in the ancient Hebrew and Phoenician alphabets, reversed by the Greeks to this position, E, not from the Hebrew T, as some have supposed. From the same origin is also derived the Saxon e, which is the first letter in their alphabet that differs from the Latin one. It is formed by a narrower opening of the larva than the letter A; but the other parts of the mouth are used nearly in the same manner as in that letter. E has a long and short sound in most languages. The short sound is audible in bed, fret, dem, and other words ending in consonants; the long sound is produced by a final e, or an e at the end of words, as in glebe, here, hire, scene, sphere, interfere, receive, sincere, and the like, in most of which it sounds like ee. In some other cases, this letter, by coming after i, is long, as in believe, chief, grief, reprove; and sometimes the long sound is expressed by ee, as in bleed, beer, creed, and so on. Sometimes the final e is silent, and only serves to lengthen the sound of the preceding vowel, as in rag, rage, stag, stage, hug, huge. The sound of e, however, is obscure in the following words: oxen, heaven, bounden, fire, massacre, mangre, and other words. The Greeks have their long and short e, which they call epaiton e, and eta η. The French have several kinds of e; the Latins have likewise a long and short e. In some instances the latter also write e instead of a, as dience for dicam; and this is no doubt the reason why a is so often changed into e in the preter-perfect tense, as ago, egit; facio, fecit, and the like.

As a numeral, E stands for 250, according to the verse,

E, quoque decentes et quinquaginta tenetis.

In the calendar it is the fifth of the dominical letters; and in sea charts it distinguishes all the Easterly points. In ancient contractions and abbreviations E represents Est, Ennius, Edilis; EB, Ejus Rona; ED, Ejus Domus; EE, Ejus Etas; EF, Ejus Filius; and so on.