Since we’re still in the first month of the new year, it’s not too late to get off to a fresh start which, in my case, means taking a look at how the first letter of our alphabet got its start and a few of the letter’s meanings.

A is the first letter and first vowel of the Latin alphabet. It is the third most-used letter in the English language after E and T, and is written as “A” in the majuscule (uppercase), while its minuscule (lowercase) can be written as either the single-storey “α” (which also stands for alpha) or the double-storey “a.”

According to most sources, A got its start in life as the Phoenician hieroglyph depicting an ox head. That symbol was known as an aleph whose usage can be traced back to the middle bronze age in Egypt. About 2800 years ago, the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet and changed “aleph” to “alpha,” which sounded like the A in “father.”

Throughout its existence, A has always been the first letter of the alphabet. According to Dictionary.com, “Some linguists believe the aleph was placed at the beginning of the Phoenician alphabet to honor the ox, important for its muscle power and as a food source.”

As noted above, ɑ stands for “alpha,” but in the case of NATO’s phonetic alphabet, in which words stand for alphabetical letters, “alpha” stands for A. (In Europe, NATO’s phonetic alphabet’s “alpha” is usually spelled “alfa” since many people there may not be aware that the grapheme “ph” is pronounced like an “f.”)

While the NATO phonetic alphabet is made up of words that stand for letters, there are myriad words for which the letter A can stand. For example, when a tiny circle is placed on its head, Å stands for “angstrom,” a unit of length equal to one 10-billionth of a meter, used chiefly in measuring wavelengths of light.

Some less sciencey things that A can stand for include a great grade on an exam (A+) or a personality type or a blood type of the person who got that great grade. Perhaps the test taker is on Medicare Part A and takes vitamin A to help their immune system while listening to AM (amplitude modulation) radio in the a.m. (ante meridiem).

Want more A? In pop culture, would it be too farfetched to expect Fonzie to give his verbal thumbs-up (“Ayyy”) to the A-Team if they dropped an A-bomb on some bad guys?

In literature, the scarlet letter worn by Hester Prynne stood for “adultery,” but according to the first book in Sue Grafton’s alphabet detective series, “’A’ is for Alibi.”

The letter A also carries spiritual symbolism in a number of religions. For instance, according to Letterracer.com, Christian interpretation of the letter A’s symbolic meaning include that it represents the beginning, as it is the first letter of the Greek alphabet (alpha), while omega represents the end, as the last letter of the Greek alphabet. Together the two symbolize the infinite nature of God and the eternal cycle of life and death.

“The letter A can also represent unity,” according to the website, “as it is made up of two intersecting lines that come together as one. It can also be seen as a symbol of creation, as it is the first letter of many words that describe the act of bringing something into existence, such as ‘art,’ ‘alchemy’ and ‘ascend.’”

Jim Witherell of Lewiston is a writer and lover of words whose work includes “L.L. Bean: The Man and His Company” and “Ed Muskie: Made in Maine.” He can be reached at jlwitherell19@gmail.com.

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