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_....
• 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....
• SYMBOL, n. Something that is supposed to typify or stand for something else.
  Many symbols are mere "survivals" -- things which having no longer any utility continue to exist because we have inherited the tendency to make them...
• If you want X, you know where to find it.: There is a legend that Dennis Ritchie
  inventor of {C}, once responded to demands for features resembling those of what at the time was a much more popular language by observing "If you want PL/I, you know where to find it....
• T, the twentieth letter of the English alphabet, was by the Greeks absurdly called _tau_.
  In the alphabet whence ours comes it had the form of the rude corkscrew of the period, and when it stood alone (which was more than the Phoenicians could always do) signified _Tallegal_, translated by the learned Dr....
• HASH, x. There is no definition for this word -- nobody knows what hash is.
  -- Ambrose Bierce, "The Devil's Dictionary...
• HAKMEM /hak'mem/ n. MIT AI Memo 239 (February 1972).
  A legendary collection of neat mathematical and programming hacks contributed by many people at MIT and elsewhere....
• 0: Numeric zero, as opposed to the letter `O' (the 15th letter of the English alphabet).
  In their unmodified forms they look a lot alike, and various kluges invented to make them visually distinct have compounded the confusion....