el

sort of a funny(?) pun, if you are a geek; "el" could be pronounced "E L", as in "Emacs Lisp", or just "ell", which sounds exactly like "L", which is the extension used to denote Common Lisp files.

(actually, I just made that last bit up; please don't hurt me!)

The Spanish and Catalan masculine singular definite article.

In other words, Spanish or Catalan for "the".

The Spanish plural form is los; the Catalan plural form is els.

I just learned from the Catholic Encyclopedia article on Hebrew Names that it is not just a suffix: Elisama means "G-d heard". That source says of 'El that "some derive the word from a root 'wl, "to be strong", others from y'l, which might connote the idea of "being the first" others finally from 'lh, by which, at an early stage of the development of the Semitic languages the idea of mere relation (esse ad) was conveyed".

Strong's Hebrew Dictionary has this to say about 'el:

shortened from ''ayil'; strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity):-- God (god), X goodly, X great, idol, might(-y one), power, strong. Compare names in "-el."\

According to the Genealogy Resource Center (cproots.com), -el is also a Germanic or Slavic diminutive suffix. The example they give is the patronymic Wenzel, which they derive from Wenze.

EL is also a common abbreviation for electroluminescent, a kind of light-producing technology now often found in commercial products. Marketed by Osram Sylvania and Durel.

El is the Spanish masculine singular definite article.

Let's break that down. 'Definite article' is just a fancy was of referring to the word 'the'. In most Romance languages there are both feminine and masculine versions of the word 'the'. In Spanish, these are 'el' (masculine) and 'la' (feminine). Nouns also have a gender, and you must match the gender of the article with the gender of the noun; thus, "el perro" (the dog, masc.), but "la vaca" (the cow, fem.).

And likewise, there are both singular and plural versions of the definite article. The plural of 'el' is 'los' ("los perros" means "the dogs"). The plural of 'la' is 'las', ("las vacas").

'El' has entered peripherally into the English language when used in phrases like El Dorado, el cheapo, and El Nino. It also makes appearances in El Cid and El Salvador.

While 'la' appears in a hand full of European languages, as far as I can find 'el' appears only in Spanish and Catalan.

The definite articles of most Romance languages, including those used in Spanish, come to us from Latin. While Latin did not use definite or indefinite articles, languages descending from it took the Latin ille, meaning 'that', to form their own definite articles. Both 'el' and 'la' are forms of ille, as are the definite articles in French, Italian, and Portuguese.

It is interesting to note that while English has roots in the Romance languages (i.e. French) and in Old English, which also had gendered nouns and articles, we don't use them at all. Old English se (masc.), seo (fem.), and þæt (nuet.) compacted into the single þe, and then into 'the'.

It should also be noted that the Arabic definite article, al-, is sometimes transliterated as el-. It is always used as a prefix, and not as a stand alone word.