Related:

• J is a consonant in English, but some nations use it as a vowel -- than which nothing could be more absurd.
  Its original form, which has been but slightly modified, was that of the tail of a subdued dog, and it was not a letter but a character, standing for a Latin verb, _jacere_, "to throw," because when a stone is thrown at a dog the dog's tail assumes that shape....
• W (double U) has, of all the letters in our alphabet, the only cumbrous name, the names of the others being monosyllabic.
  This advantage of the Roman alphabet over the Grecian is the more valued after audibly spelling out some simple Greek word, like _epixoriambikos_....
• K is a consonant that we get from the Greeks, but it can be traced away back beyond them to the Cerathians, a small commercial nation inhabiting the peninsula of Smero.
  In their tongue it was called _Klatch_, which means "destroyed....
• I is the first letter of the alphabet, the first word of the language, the first thought of the mind, the first object of affection.
  In grammar it is a pronoun of the first person and singular number....
• BAAL, n. An old deity formerly much worshiped under various names.
  As Baal he was popular with the Phoenicians; as Belus or Bel he had the honor to be served by the priest Berosus, who wrote the famous account of the Deluge...
• R.I.P. A careless abbreviation of _requiescat in pace_, attesting to indolent goodwill to the dead.
  According to the learned Dr. Drigge, however, the letters originally meant nothing more than _reductus in pulvis_....
• X in our alphabet being a needless letter has an added invincibility to the attacks of the spelling reformers, and like them, will doubtless last as long as the language.
  X is the sacred symbol of ten dollars, and in such words as Xmas, Xn, etc....
• EFFECT, n. The second of two phenomena which always occur together in the same order.
  The first, called a Cause, is said to generate the other -- which is no more sensible than it would be for one who has never seen a dog except in the pursuit of a rabbit to declare the rabbit the cause of a dog....
• REPLICA, n. A reproduction of a work of art, by the artist that made the original.
  It is so called to distinguish it from a "copy," which is made by another artist....