Ae

Part of speech: determiner, noun

Definitions

1. In Scottish dialect, a word meaning the number one or a single individual thing or person
2. A Scots term for the numeral one, used as a determiner or pronoun for a single item or person
3. The Scottish form of the number one, referring to a single unit, individual or thing

Etymology: The letter æ began as a ligature, two letters written together, a and e, which Latin scribes used to save space. Old English adopted it for a vowel sound of its own, and it was known by the Old English name "ash," after the tree. Writing "ae" is a way to spell the letter when the ligature itself is unavailable. The determiner is a separate story. In Scots, "ae" means "one," as in "ae day" for "one day." It descends from Old English "ān," the source of modern "one" and "an." Its spelling only resembles the vowel ligature by coincidence.