EXAMPLES FROM THE WEB FOR ASH
The sword shall belong to him who can draw it from the ash tree's heart.
For ash, however, the actual character 'æ' represents the long vowel.
A stick parted and fell into ash, and Miss Susan came awake.
Being tired, they lay down under an ash tree and fell asleep.
Athens,—except for that sparkle,—thy name, I had moldered to ash!
The hand which held his cigar shook so that the ash fell upon his waistcoat.
It was the early spring, and the black buds of the ash had just begun to swell.
Roger flicked the ash from his cigarette and coughed slightly.
He meditatively flicked the ash from his cigar with his little finger.
He laid the stump of his cigar in the ash receiver and rose from his chair.
WORD ORIGIN
"powdery remains of fire," Old English æsce "ash," from Proto-Germanic *askon (cf. Old Norse and Swedish aska, Old High German asca, German asche, Gothic azgo "ashes"), from PIE root *as- "to burn, glow" (cf. Sanskrit asah "ashes, dust," Armenian azazem "I dry up," Greek azein "to dry up, parch," Latin ardus "parched, dry"). Spanish and Portuguese ascua "red-hot coal" are Germanic loan-words.
Symbol of grief or repentance; hence Ash Wednesday (c.1300), from custom introduced by Pope Gregory the Great of sprinkling ashes on the heads of penitents on the first day of Lent. Ashes meaning "mortal remains of a person" is late 13c., in reference to the ancient custom of cremation.