aitch

Etymology

From Middle English ache, borrowed from Old French ache, from Vulgar Latin *acca. (Compare Italian acca.) The source is unclear, but may descend from the vowelless alphabetic sequence ha ka 'H, K' (becoming [aka] when the [h] ceased to be pronounced), as K had low frequency in Late Latin.

noun

1. The name of the Latin-script letter H.
   The word length, which contains only four sounds l e ng th, is usually spell'd thus, el ee en gee tee aitch. 1773 October, The Monthly Review Or Literary Journal Enlarged
   "If you've got any drawing-room manners, or a dislike to eating peas with a knife or dropping aitches, you'd better chuck 'em away. They ain't no further use." 1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 257
   She frowned, hearing Lim Cheng Po's voice, so English, so refined, so very English upper-class. And often she had had to tell Joe about his aitches. 1959, Anthony Burgess, Beds in the East (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 469
   The word hour is written with a silent aitch.
   Cockneys drop their aitches.