A letter (ð) used in Old English and Icelandic alphabets, representing the voiced 'th' sound.
From Old English eð, related to Old Norse eðr meaning 'or, again'. The letter was borrowed from the runic alphabet and used extensively in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts before disappearing from English around 1300.
The eth is like a linguistic fossil - it survived the Norman Conquest but eventually lost out to 'th' spellings, though it lives on in modern Icelandic and Faroese. Linguists still use it in phonetic transcription, making it a bridge between ancient and modern language study.
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