A — Webster's 1913 Dictionary

A

A (named ā in the English, and most commonly a in other languages)

The first letter of the English and of many other alphabets. The capital A of the alphabets of Middle and Western Europe, as also the small letter (a), besides the forms in Italic, black letter, etc., are all descended from the old Latin A, which was borrowed from the Greek Alpha, of the same form; and this was made from the first letter ({not transcribed}) of the Phonician alphabet, the equivalent of the Hebrew Aleph, and itself from the Egyptian origin. The Aleph was a consonant letter, with a guttural breath sound that was not an element of Greek articulation; and the Greeks took it to represent their vowel Alpha with the a sound, the Phonician alphabet having no vowel symbols.

(Music) The name of the sixth tone in the model major scale (that in C), or the first tone of the minor scale, which is named after it the scale in A minor. The second string of the violin is tuned to the A in the treble staff. -- A sharp (A♯) is the name of a musical tone intermediate between A and B. -- A flat (A♭) is the name of a tone intermediate between A and G.

O fair Creseide, the flower and A per se Of Troy and Greece. — Chaucer

Collocations (1)

A per se , one preeminent; a nonesuch. [Obsolete]

A (ȧ emph. ā)

[Shortened form of an. Anglo-Saxon ān one. See One.]

It is placed before nouns of the singular number denoting an individual object, or a quality individualized, before collective nouns, and also before plural nouns when the adjective few or the phrase great many or good many is interposed; as, a dog, a house, a man; a color; a sweetness; a hundred, a fleet, a regiment; a few persons, a great many days. It is used for an, for the sake of euphony, before words beginning with a consonant sound [for exception of certain words beginning with h, see An]; as, a table, a woman, a year, a unit, a eulogy, a ewe, a oneness, such a one, etc. Formally an was used both before vowels and consonants.

An adjective, commonly called the indefinite article, and signifying one or any, but less emphatically.

At a birth — Shakespeare

In a word

At a blow

In each; to or for each; as, “twenty leagues a day”, “a hundred pounds a year”, “a dollar a yard”, etc.

A (ȧ) , preposition

[Abbreviated form of an (Anglo-Saxon on). See On.]

In; on; at; by. [Obsolete]

A God's name. — Shakespeare

Torn a pieces. — Chaucer

Stand a tiptoe. — Robynson (More's Utopia)

A Sundays

Wit that men have now a days.

Set them a work.

The hyphen may be used to connect a with the verbal substantive (as, a-hunting, a-building) or the words may be written separately. This form of expression is now for the most part obsolete, the a being omitted and the verbal substantive treated as a participle.

In process of; in the act of; into; to; -- used with verbal substantives in -ing which begin with a consonant. This is a shortened form of the preposition an (which was used before the vowel sound); as in a hunting, a building, a begging.

Jacob, when he was a dying — Heb. xi. 21

We'll a birding together. — Shakespeare

It was a doing. — Macaulay

He burst out a laughing.

[From Anglo-Saxon of off, from. See Of.]

Of. [Obsolete]

The name of John a Gaunt. — Shakespeare

What time a day is it? — B. Jonson

It's six a clock.

A barbarous corruption of have, of he, and sometimes of it and of they.

So would I a done — Shakespeare

A brushes his hat.

An expletive, void of sense, to fill up the meter

A merry heart goes all the day, Your sad tires in a mile-a. — Shakespeare

A-

A, as a prefix to English words, is derived from various sources. (1) It frequently signifies on or in (from an, a forms of Anglo-Saxon on), denoting a state, as in afoot, on foot, abed, amiss, asleep, aground, aloft, away (Anglo-Saxon onweg), and analogically, ablaze, atremble, etc. (2) Anglo-Saxon of off, from, as in adown (Anglo-Saxon ofdūne off the dun or hill). (3) Anglo-Saxon ā- (Gothic us-, ur-, German er-), usually giving an intensive force, and sometimes the sense of away, on, back, as in arise, abide, ago. (4) Old English y- or i- (corrupted from the Anglo-Saxon inseparable particle ge-, cognate with Old High German ga-, gi-, Gothic ga-), which, as a prefix, made no essential addition to the meaning, as in aware. (5) French à (L. ad to), as in abase, achieve. (6) L. a, ab, abs, from, as in avert. (7) Greek insep. prefix α without, or privative, not, as in abyss, atheist; akin to E. un-.

Besides these, there are other sources from which the prefix a takes its origin.

A diphthong in the Latin language; used also by the Saxon writers. It corresponds to the Greek ai. The Anglo-Saxon short a was generally replaced by a, the long a by e or ee. In derivatives from Latin words with ae, it is mostly superseded by e. For most words found with this initial combination, the reader will therefore search under the letter E.

Also: Ae, AE