B

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·- is the second letter of the English alphabet. (·see Guide to Pronunciation, // 196, 220.) It is etymologically related to p, v, f, w and m , letters representing sounds having a close organic affinity to its own sound; as in ·Eng. bursar and purser; ·Eng. bear and ·Lat. ferre; ·Eng. silver and ·Ger. silber; ·Lat. cubitum and It. gomito; ·Eng. seven, ·AS seofon, ·Ger. sieben, ·Lat. septem, ·Gr. 'epta', ·Skr. saptan. The form of letter B is Roman, from Greek B (Beta), of Semitic origin. The small b was formed by gradual change from the capital B.

Related Words

B
B, b, indecl. n., designates, in the Latin alphabet, the soft, labial sound as in English, unlike th...

A New Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis Ph.D. and Charles Short, LL. D.
Disraeli, B.
(see Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli. ...

Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin
A B C
·- The simplest rudiments of any subject; as, the A B C of finance. II. A B C ·- A primer for teach...

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language
Bury, John B.
LL.D., etc. (b. 1861) Historian. History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene (1889), ...

Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature by John W. Cousin
to know b from a
bull's foot. It is a common phrase to say, "He does not know B from a bull's foot," meaning that a p...

Dictionary of American Words And Phrases by John Russell Bartlett.