Dictionary of Meaning
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L
*** Shopping-Tip: L
{{AZ|uc=L|lc=l}}'''L''' is the twelfth letter of the
Latin Alphabet alphabet. Its name in
English language English is ''el''.
History
The letter '''L''' is derived ultimately from the
Semitic (crook/goad) which stood for the phonetic value '''/l/'''. This originally may have been based on an Egyptian hieroglyph that was adapted by Semites for alphabetic purposes. The Greek letter
Lambda Λ (upper case) or λ (lower case), as well as the equivalent
Etruscan language Etruscan and Latin letters, have the same sound as the Semitic letter. In reference, it is spelled '''el''' or '''ell'''.
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="border-collapse: collapse;text-align:center;"
|- bgcolor="#EEEEEE"
! Egyptian hieroglyph ''`wt''
! Proto-Semitic L
! Phoenician L
! Etruscan L
! Greek L
|-----
|
S39
|
Image:Proto-semiticL-01.png
|
Image:PhoenicianL-01.png
|
Image:EtruscanL-01.png
|
Image:GreekL-01.png
|}
Usage
In
English language English, L can have several values, depending on whether it occurs before or after a vowel. The
alveolar lateral approximant (
International Phonetic Alphabet IPA {{IPA|[l]}}) occurs before a vowel, as in ''lip'' or ''please'', while the
velarized alveolar lateral approximant (IPA {{IPA.html">Dark L'''). This velarization does not occur in many European languages that use L, and is also a factor making L difficult to pronounce for users of languages such as
Japanese.html" title="Meaning of Dark L.html" title="Meaning of Japanese language Japanese">Japanese language|Japanese or
Chinese language Chinese that either lack or have different values for L. In English, L is silent in words such as ''walk'' or ''calm''.
L can occur before almost any
plosive,
fricative, or
affricate in English. Common digraphs include LL, which has a value identical to L in English but has the separate value
voiceless alveolar lateral fricative (IPA {{IPA.html">Welsh language
Welsh, where it can appear in an initial position.
A palatalised L (IPA {{IPA|/ʎ/}}) occurs in many languages, and is represented by GL in
Italian language Italian, LL in certain varieties of
Spanish language Spanish, LH in
Portuguese language Portuguese and Ä» in
Latvian language Latvian.
Codes for computing
{{Letter
|NATO=Lima
|Morse=·–··
|B1=â—?
|B2=â—?
|B3=â—?
|B4=â—‹
|B5=â—‹
|B6=â—‹
}}
In
Unicode the
majuscule capital L is codepoint U+004C and the
minuscule lowercase l is U+006C. In some fonts, a lowercase l may be difficult to distinguish from a 1(one), a more stylized version based on the handwritten ℓ is sometimes used - this is often used as a suffix on a number to represent
litres. Sometimes, capital I is also hard to distinguish from a lowercase l as well, as many fonts use a vertical bar for both of these characters. Its codepoint is U +2113 and its numeric character reference is "
ℓ".
The
ASCII code for capital L is 76 and for lowercase l is 108; or in
Binary numeral system binary 01001100 and 01101100, correspondingly.
The
EBCDIC code for capital L is 211 and for lowercase l is 147.
The
numeric character references in
HTML and
XML are "
L" and "
l" for upper and lower case respectively.
Things named "L"
*In
computational complexity theory,
L (complexity) is the
complexity class class of all
decision problems calculable in
logarithmic space.
*A mathematical adventure game was made for the
BBC Micro called "L"
*In
set theory,
denotes
Gödel's constructible universe.
*The city of
Chicago, Illinois has an
elevated train called the
Chicago 'L' L.
*''L'' is a novel by the
Norway Norwegian author
Erlend Loe.
*In the movie
Men in Black (movie) Men In Black, agent "L" (as in "Elle", French for "She") is the lead female character.
*In the
manga Death Note, L is the alias of a brilliant, eccentric detective investigating the 'Kira' murders.
*
L (album) L is a record alubum, audio cassette and 8-track by
Lol Creme and
Kevin Godley.
*
L is a slang term for
blunt in
marijuana counterculture and in the
hip-hop sub-culture.
Abbreviation or symbol "L"
*In
anatomy, L means
lumbar, as in L-spine, or written with a number (from
L1 to
L5) refers to a numbered
lumbar vertebrae lumbar vertebra or lumbar
spinal nerve.
* In
astronomy,
** L stands for a June 1 through 15 discovery, in the provisional designation of a comet (e.g.
C/1845 L1, the Great June Comet of 1845) or asteroid (e.g.
(3988) 1986 LA).
*In
Optical isomerism, L means
levorotatory
**Molecules with L
stereochemistry conformation are oriented in decreasing importance going anti-clockwise around a chiral carbon
**The human body only uses L amino acids. Bacteria and other prokaryotes use D amino acids and are targeted by antibiotics.
*In
biochemistry, L is the symbol for
leucine.
*In
botany, L. is the standard abbreviation for
Carolus Linnaeus when cited as the author of plants he described, as in e.g.
Stone Pine ''Pinus pinea'' L.
*In
electrical engineering, ''L'' is often the
variable for
inductance.
*In
physics, ''L'' is used to represent
angular momentum.
*In
etymology and
languages, L. is the abbreviation for
Latin.
*In
finance, L is the
New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol for
Liberty Media Corporation A
*In
industry, L often denotes "large size".
*In
List of international license plate codes international licence plate codes, L stands for
Luxembourg.
*In
navigation, L denotes the
relative direction "left"; see
left and right.
*As the first letter of a
postal code,
**In
Canada, L stands for
Central Ontario.
**In the
United Kingdom, L stands for
Liverpool.
* In
Roman naming convention, L is the abbreviation for the
praenomen Lucius.
*In the
SI system, l, â„“ or L is the symbol for the
litre, a unit of
volume or capacity.
*In
Computer and video games video games, L is the symbol for
Luigi, a
Nintendo character.
*When affixed to the back of a car, L often means
L-plate learner.
*L is an IRC-service (
Internet bot bot on the popular
IRC-network
QuakeNet.
*In the
1980's, placing ones right hand on the forehead in the shape of an L means calling them a
loser.
*An L in
cannabis culture is a certain way of rolling a joint using two skins, in the shape of an L.
Alternate meanings for the symbol "L"
*In
Roman numerals, L denotes the number
50 (number) 50 (there are also separate
Unicode characters for this number, 0x216C "â…¬" and 0x217C "â…¼").
*The lowercase l is sometimes used in place of the number
1 (number) 1 in typewritten text. Some
typewriters did not even have a key for the numeral, so a number of people have retained the habit even in the
computer age.
See also
L with stroke Ł,
Ll,
£
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