M: Encyclopedia - M

M

M is the thirteenth letter of the latin alphabet. Its name in English is em.

M is also the title of a 1931 film by Fritz Lang, and its 1951 remake.

M is also the name of a now-defunct professional videocassette format developed by Matsushita and RCA.

M also is a pop band known from the synthpop hit Pop Muzik.

M - History

The letter M represents the bilabial nasal consonant sound, IPA [m], in Classical languages as well as the modern languages. It derives its shape from the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem originally pictured water, in all probability.

The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) says that 'm' is sometimes a vowel in words like spasm and in the suffix -ism. In modern terminology this would be described as a syllabic consonant — IPA [m̩].

The Latin letter M derives from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu.

M - Alternative representations

Mike represents the letter M in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

In international Morse code the letter M is DahDah: - -

In Braille the letter M is represented as ⠍ (in Unicode), the dot pattern:

XX
..
X.

M - Computing

In Unicode the capital M is codepoint U+004D and the lowercase m is U+006D.

The ASCII code for capital M is 77 and for lowercase m is 109; or in binary 01001101 and 01101101, correspondingly.

The EBCDIC code for capital M is 212 and for lowercase m is 148.

The numeric character references in HTML and XML are "M" and "m" for upper and lower case respectively.

M - Meanings for M

• In astronomy, M is an abbreviation for "Messier" in designations for the Messier Deepsky Objects.
• In biochemistry, M is the symbol for methionine.
• In calendars, M is often an abbreviation for Monday or for one of the months "March" or "May".
• In chemistry:
  • M is the symbol for molarity (M) of solutions.
  • m is the symbol for sample mass (m) of compounds.
• In the CMYK color model, M stands for the colour magenta.
• In comics:
  • M is the name of a member of "Generation X", a team of younger mutants affiliated with and coached by some of the former "X-Men".
  • M is a Norwegian comic strip.
• In computing:
  • M, when used as a binary prefix, means 2²⁰ = 1,048,576 (cf. M as a Metric prefix below, and the prefix mebi: Mi).
  • M is another name for the computer programming language MUMPS.
• In common references to currency, M or m denotes million or millions, such as $25M (twenty-five million dollars).
• In traditional accounting practice, M designates thousand or thousands (from the Latin mille), and MM is used for million. Hence such traditional abbreviations as CPM for cost per thousand items of a retail good, or MCF for thousand cubic feet of (e.g.) natural gas.
• In economics, M is usually used to represent imports.
• In French, and some English works by French authors, "M." is an abbreviation for Monsieur.
• In film:
  • M is the codename of the head of MI6 in the James Bond books and films; see M (James Bond).
  • M is the name of a film from 1931 directed by Fritz Lang about a serial killer who preys on children; see M (1931 film).
  • M is the name of a lesser-known film from 1951; see M (1951 film).
• In grammar, M is often the abbreviation for the male grammatical gender.
• In theology and higher criticism, M is an abbreviation for "M Gospel"
• In information systems, M is often used as the abbreviation for the male sex in personal data records.
• In international licence plate codes, M stands for Malta.
• In mathematics:
  • m is used to denote slope in slope-intercept form. An M-set is the opposite of a set of uniqueness.
  • Script capital M (Unicode 0x2133 ℳ) denotes a matrix.
• In the SI system:
  • M, mega, is an SI prefix denoting 10⁶ = 1,000,000 (one million) (cf. M in computing above)
  • m, milli, an SI prefix meaning 1/1000.
  • m denotes metre (or meter), the SI base unit for length.
• Script capital M (Unicode 0x2133 ℳ) denotes the old German currency mark.
• In music:
  • M is the assumed name of the artist Robin Scott, who performed the 1979 #1 hit song "Pop Muzik".
  • -M- is the artist name of the French singer Matthieu Chédid.
  • "M" is the pseudonym for a Jazz vocalist hired by Yoko Kanno (see M (singer))
  • A reference to rapper Eminem
• In physics:
  • M-theory is a proposed solution for problems in superstring theories.
  • Script capital M (Unicode 0x2133 ℳ) denotes a torque.
• As the first letter of a postal code:
  • In Canada, M stands for the City of Toronto.
  • In the United Kingdom, M stands for Manchester.
• In radiocommunication, M is one of the ITU prefixes allocated to the United Kingdom.
• In Roman naming convention, M is the abbreviation for the praenomen Marcus, and M' stands for Manius.
• In Roman numerals, M denotes one thousand, from mille in Latin (there are also separate Unicode characters for this number, 0x216F "Ⅿ" and 0x217F "ⅿ").
• In photography, most SLR cameras use M to signify manual mode, where the user sets both aperture and shutter speed.
• In video games:
  • M is the ESRB rating symbol for Mature.
  • M is the abbreviation for Mario, a Nintendo character.
  • The name of a glitch Pokémon, called 'M. (The real name is )
• M is an abbreviation for the Russian design bureau Myasishchev
• In Denmark, the Copenhagen Metro is often abbreviated M.
• M is the US military designation for "Model" in weapons, vehicles and other equipment, but not military aircraft. Started use in the early to mid 1930's. Prior usage was the word Model of with the year of adoption or standardization. The correct current usage is with the letter M and then the number assigned, i.e. M1 rifle, etc.

See also

Category: Latin letters

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "M", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki