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| Name | Proto-Germanic | Old English |
|---|---|---|
| *Ehwaz | E(o)h | |
| "horse" | ||
| Shape | Elder Futhark | Futhorc |
 | ||
| Unicode | ᛖ U+16D6 | |
| Transliteration | e | |
| Transcription | e | |
| IPA | [e(ː)] | |
| Position in rune-row | 19 | |
*Ehwaz is the reconstructedProto-Germanic name of theElder Futharkeruneᛖ, meaning "horse" (cognate to Latinequus, Gaulishepos, Tocharian Byakwe, Sanskritaśva, Avestanaspa andOld Irishech). In theAnglo-Saxon futhorc, it is continued asᛖeh (properlyeoh, but spelled without the diphthong to avoid confusion withᛇēoh "yew").
The Proto-Germanic vowel system was asymmetric and unstable. The difference between the long vowels expressed byᛖe andᛇï (sometimes transcribed as*ē1 and*ē2) was lost. TheYounger Futhark continues neither, lacking a letter expressinge altogether. The Anglo-Saxon futhorc faithfully preserved all Elder futhorc staves, but assigned new sound values to the redundant ones, futhorcēoh expressing a diphthong.
In the case of theGothic alphabet, where the names of the runes were re-applied to letters derived from the Greek alphabet, the letter𐌴e was namedaíƕus "horse" as well (note that in Gothic orthography,⟨aí⟩ represents monophthongic /e/).
The rune may have been an original innovation, or it may have been adapted from theclassical Latin alphabet'sE,[citation needed] or from theGreek alphabet'sH.[1]
The Anglo-Saxonrune poem has:
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