H

Latin > English (Lewis & Short)

H: h, the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet and the weakest guttural. The sign is borrowed from the Greek, in which H was the old form of the spiritus asper, corresp. to the Latin H-sound (HEKATON, ἑκατόν, ΗΟΣ, ὅς, etc.). Even some of the ancients doubted whether the Latin H was properly a letter:
I si H littera est, non nota, Quint. 1, 5, 19; cf.: H litteram, sive illam spiritum magis quam litteram dici oportet, etc., Gell. 2, 3, 1. Before the fall of the republic, the sound of H before vowels became so weak that it was frequently omitted in writing; and this weakness became more marked in many words in the time of the empire; cf.: aheneus and aeneus; cohors and coörs; prehendo and prendo; vehemens and vemens, etc. (v. Corss. Ausspr. 1, 96 sqq.).As an initial and medial, H may be combined with any vowel, but the orthography, in this respect, was inconstant: thus we have herus and erus; honus, honera, and onus, onera; harundo and arundo; and even hac for ac (Inscr. Orell. 23); aruspex and haruspex; ercisco, erctum, and hercisco, herctum; aheneus and aëneus; Annibal and Hannibal; Adria and Hadria, etc.; v. Gell. l. l.—As a sign for the aspiration of the consonants c, p, r, and t (as in Greek the aspirates χ, φ, θ were originally designated by KH, HH, TH), H first came into use in the seventh century of Rome; cf. Cic. Or. 48, 160; and
v. the letter C.— Medial h is often dropped.—As a final, h occurs only in the interjections ah and vah.In the formation of words, h was changed into c before t, as tractum from traho; vectum from veho; and coalesced with s into x, as traxi, vexi; cf. also onyx from onych-s;
v. the letter X. As an abbreviation, H. denotes hic, haec, hoc, hujus, etc.; habet, heres, honor, etc. HH. heredes. H. AQ. hic acquiescit. H. B. M. heredes bene merenti. H. C. Hispania citerior or hic condiderunt. H. E. T. heres ex testamento. H. F. C. heres faciundum curavit. H. L. hunc locum. H. L. ET. M. H. N. S. hic locus et monumentum heredem non sequitur. H. M. S. D. M. hoc monumentum sine dolo malo. H. S. E. hic situs est. H. S. F. hoc sibi fecit, etc.; v. Inscr. Orell. II. p. 461 sq.!*? The abbreviation HS. for sestertium does not strictly belong here, because H is not the letter of that shape, but the numeral II. crossed; v. sestertius init.

Latin > German (Georges)

H, h, achter Buchstabe des latein. Alphabets, die schwächste Gutturalis, dem Spiritus asper (urspr. H, dann geteilt u. die linke Hälfte F für den Spiritus asper, die rechte für den Spiritus lenis gebraucht, das ganze Zeichen aber für den Vokal η beibehalten) in Zeichen u. Laut gleich, daher von den Grammatikern zuw. für eine bloße Bezeichnung des Hauchlautes (aspiratio) gehalten; vgl. Quint. 1, 5, 19. Gell. 2, 3, 1.
Als An- u. Inlaut verbindet sich h mit jedem Vokale, doch war seine Schreibung durch alle Zeiten der lebenden Sprache ziemlich unsicher, dah. honus für onus, harundo für arundo; dagegen aruspex für haruspex, erus für herus u. dgl. – als Auslaut findet sich h nur in den Interjektionen ah u. vah.
h ging in der Wortbildung in c über vor t, zB. traho, tractum, veho, vecto, u. schmolz mit s in x zusammen, zB. traxi, vexi.
Als Abkürzung ist H = hic u. dessen Kasus; ferner = habet, hastata (cohors), heres, honos u.a. – HAR. = haruspex. – H. C. = Hispania citerior. – H. S. = hic situs (est): H. S. S. = hic siti sunt. – HH. = heredes: H. E. T. = heres ex testamento: H. N. S. = heredem non sequitur. – / Nur uneig. gehört hierher HS (= sestertium), da H hier die durchstrichene Zahl II bezeichnet.