Where does “Rhee” come from?
Rhee is the English spelling of Korean 이, ultimately from Old English e, with the original meaning now obscure.
Ancestry of “Rhee”, step by step
Rhee traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Korean 이
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Korean | 이 | this; this, this thing, this person; here |
| 2 | English | E | The ordinal number fifth, derived from this... |
| 3 | Old English | E | — |
| 4 | Latin | E | Scribal abbreviation of the diphthong ae |
| 5 | Etruscan | 𐌄 | — |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | ε | Lower case epsilon, the fifth letter of the ancient and modern Greek alphabets. Its name was εἶ, later ἒ ψιλόν, and presently έψιλον. It represents roughly the same sound in both alphabets: in Modern Greek, a somewhat lowered variant of the mid front unrounded vowel: or. It is preceded by δ and foll |
| 7 | Phoenician | 𐤄 | that |
| 8 | Egyptian | 𓀠 | — |