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Origin and history of ea

ea(n.)

the usual Old English word for "river, running water" (still in use in Lancashire, according to OED), from Proto-Germanic *ahwo- (source also of Old Frisian a, Old Saxon aha, Old High German aha, German ahe-, Old Dutch aha, Old Norse "water"), from PIE root *ekweh- "water" (see aqua-). "The standard word in place-names for river denoting a watercourse of greater size than a broc or a burna" [Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-Names].

Entries linking to ea

Edam(adj.)

1836, type of cheese named for Edam, village in Holland where it was originally made. The place name is literally "the dam on the River Ye," which flows into the Ijsselmeer there, and the river name is literally "river" (see ea).

Eton

collar (1882), jacket (1873, formerly worn by the younger boys there), etc., from Eton College, public school for boys on the Thames opposite Windsor, founded by Henry VI. The place name is Old English ea "river" (see ea) + tun "farm, settlement" (see town (n.)). Related: Etonian.

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Trends of ea

adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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island
1590s, earlier yland (c. 1300), from Old English igland, iegland "an island," from ieg "island" (from Proto-Germanic *awjo "thing on the water," from PIE root *akwa- "water") + land (n.). The second syllable (also in Old Frisian alond, Middle Dutch eiland) was added later to dist
hallo
Old English had ea la....
puny
puis "afterward" (from Vulgar Latin *postius, from Latin postea "after this, hereafter," from post "after," see post-, + ea...
feast
The spelling -ea- was used in Middle English to represent the sound we mis-call "long e."...
diphthong
diphthong at all, being merely a collocation of two or more vowels in the same syllable, of which only one is sounded, as ea...
quean
The -ea- spelling is attested from early 15c....
oh
But it is not found in Old English (which had ea and translated Latin oh with la or eala) or the older Germanic languages...
ae
see æ. As a word, it can represent Old English æ "law," especially law of nature or God's law; hence "legal custom, marriage," from Proto-Germanic *aiwi- (cognate with Old High German ewa, Old Saxon eo), according to Buck probably literally "way, manner, custom," from PIE *ei- "t
article
c. 1200, "separate parts of anything written" (such as the statements in the Apostles' Creed, the clauses of a statute or contract), from Old French article (13c.), from Latin articulus "a part, a member," also "a knuckle; the article in grammar," diminutive of artus "a joint" (f
Deuteronomy
5th book of the Pentateuch, late 14c., Deutronomye (Wycliffe), from Late Latin Deuteronomium, from Ecclesiastical Greek Deuteronomion, literally "second law," from deuteros "second" (see deutero-) + nomos "law" (from PIE root *nem- "assign, allot; take"). A mistranslation of Hebr

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