That's a ligature for the "ae" diphthong in Latin though, rather than the ash character of Old English. There's also an "oe" diphthong, hence "oestrogen", "foetus".
British usage usually preserves the "a" and "o" in those diphthongs.
British usage usually preserves the "a" and "o" in those diphthongs.
Oe is also used in the same way I suppose, oestrogen for example comes from οιστρογόνο so in this case oe is transliterating omicron iota.
Some more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_words_of_Greek_origin#...
I was actually a bit disappointed that she doesn't mention all this in the article, "ae" is not aesthetical (another greek-derived word) ffs, it very often maintains the historical orthography of the word which I feel is very important.