The letter name is derived from Proto-Semitic "eye", and the Phoenician letter had an eye-shape, ultimately derived from the ı͗r hieroglyph <hiero> D4 </hiero> To this day, ʿayin in Hebrew, Arabic, and Amharic means "eye" and "spring" (ʿayno in Neo-Aramaic) but in Maltese it additionally also means "aid".
The sound represented by ayin is common to much of the Afroasiatic language family, such as in the Egyptian language, the Cushitic languages and the Semitic languages.