Y (Real)

Y, Oh Y, Oh Y

Author: Aaron Rice
Date: 1997/07/10
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The twenty-fifth letter of the modern English alphabet. Popular in that it has become a simple contraction for the most famous question of all time, namely: "why?" Also popular because of its elegant appearance, and undoubted linguistic usefulness.

Its bounds extend from being the letter which begins words such as "yellow", "yack", and "yolk" (several of very few), to becoming the end of a great many words, such as "wintery", "sixty", and "aerodynamically". It is also used inside words such as "dynamic" to add a little elegance, where an "I" would otherwise fester [1].

It is also used, in its lower-case form, as a symbol to represent the second axis in a coordinate system, where "x" is the first, and "z" tends to be the third. In this form, it is usually used to mean "vertical". As a symbol, it can also represent the Japanese currency (the Yen).

Finally, the letter "Y" is represented by the communications code-word "Yankee" and, though perhaps for other reasons, is very popular in Wales.

[1]	If you're feeling particularly confident, you might also look at words such as "yesterday", where "y" begins and ends. If you are feeling creative, or have a better dictionary than I, you might even come up with a word that begins with, ends with, and has "y" in the middle.

See also

• A
• X
• Q