Etymology: Letter form. The fifteenth letter of the modern English alphabet and fourteenth of the ancient Roman alphabet, corresponding in form and value to the ancient Greek Ο, derived from the sixteenth letter of the Phoenician and ancient Semitic alphabet, ○, ?, ?, (Hebrew ע), called ʿayin , i.e. ‘eye’. The Semitic letter represented the voiced pharyngeal fricative (ʕ) (modern Arabic ﻋ, ﻉ). This sound not being present in ancient Greek, the symbol was appropriated to the vowel o (which the sound of Semitic ʿayin in conjunction with a may have somewhat resembled). In early Greek, Ο was used for both short and long o ; subsequently (apparently c600 b.c., in Ionic) a new symbol Ω, ω was added to the alphabet to distinguish long open ō ; the original Ο ο being then restricted to short o . Letter name. o is usual as the name of the letter in classical Latin, and hence in English. (In ancient Greek the name of the letter was οὖ . In Hellenistic Greek long and short o were distinguished as O méga , ‘great O’ and O micrón , ‘little O’ respectively.) Sound. From Greek times downward, this letter has regularly represented some variety or varieties of mid or low back vowel, usually rounded. On account of its intermediate position, this vowel is (like e ) liable to considerable variation of quality; many languages distinguish ‘close’ o from ‘open’ o . The normal sound of (historically) short o , as in top , offer , body , is now British English/ɒ/, U.S. English /ɑ/, /ɔ/ (the latter limited to certain environments). It frequently stands for the sound of short u (British English /ʌ/, U.S. English /ə/), as in son , love (British English /əː/ before r , as in word ); in unaccented syllables it usually represents /ə/, as in method . When original short o comes before r final, or r + consonant, as in or , for , corn , short , it is now British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ(ə)/. The normal sound of long o , as in no , local , most , (and with consonant plus silent e ) bone , is a diphthong, British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/; but before r , as in bore , choral , story , the sound is now British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ(ə)/. Exceptionally, o can represent (i) British English /uː/, U.S. English /u/, as in do , tomb , (and with consonant plus silent e ) move , whose ; (ii) /ʊ/, as in bosom , wolf ; (iii) /ɪ/ as in women ; (iv) British English /wʌ/, U.S. English /wə/, as in one , once . O is the first letter of a number of digraphs, as follows: oa (i) British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, as in load ; (ii) (before r ) British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ(ə)/, as in boar ; (iii) British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ/ or /ɑ/ in broad . oe (chiefly in final position) British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, as in hoe ; (ii) (in classical loanwords) British English /iː/, U.S. English /ɛ/ or /i/, as in Oedipus : see further the note below. oo (i) British English /uː/, U.S. English /u/, as in moon ; (ii) /ʊ/, as in good ; (iii) (before r ) British English /ʊə/ (alongside /ɔː/), U.S. English /ʊ(ə)/, as in boor ; (iv) British English /ʌ/, U.S. English /ə/, as in blood ; (v) (before r ) British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ(ə)/, as in door ; (vi) British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, in brooch . oi (i) the diphthong /ɔi/, as in boil ; (ii) the sequence British English /wɑː/, U.S. English /wɑ/, as in noisette ; (iii) British English /wʌɪə/, U.S. English /waɪə/ in choir . ou (i) the diphthong /aʊ/, as in out ; (ii) British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, as in soul ; (iii) British English /uː/, U.S. English /u/, as in soup ; (iv) British English /ʌ/, U.S. English /ə/, as in touch ; (v) (before r ) British English /ʊə/ (alongside /ɔː/), U.S. English /ʊ(ə)/, as in tour ; (vi) (before r ) British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ/, as in pour ; (vii) (before r ) British English /əː/, U.S. English /ə/, as in journey ; (viii) (in unstressed syllables) /ə/, as in pious ; (ix) (before gh ) variously /aʊ/, as in bough , British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, as in dough , British English /uː/, U.S. English /u/, as in through , British English /ʌ/, U.S. English /ə/, as in tough , British English /ɔː/, U.S. English /ɔ/, /ɑ/ as in thought ; and also British English /ɒ/, U.S. English /ɑ/, /ɔ/ as in cough . ow (i) the diphthong /aʊ/, as in now ; (ii) British English /əʊ/, U.S. English /oʊ/, as in low . oy the diphthong /ɔi/, as in boy . For digraphs in which o is the second letter, see the entry for the first letter. Main developments within English. The following gives a very brief outline of the origins and development of the main sounds represented by o in English. In Old English the ō inherited from Proto-Germanic (corresponding to both Indo-European ā and ō , in e.g. mother n.¹, flood n. respectively) merges (as also in Old Frisian) with ō developed from Germanic a before nasals (in e.g. tooth n.). Old English short o arose by a-mutation from u in Proto-North-West Germanic (in e.g. Old English geoc yoke n.). The symbol o also occurs (alternating with a ) before a nasal in words such as man n.¹; the exact nature of the sound represented is uncertain, but is usually considered (ignoring dialect differences) to have been intermediate between /ɔ/ and /ɑ/ (it was formerly often represented in modern philological writings by ǫ ). In later Old English o also occurs increasingly for etymological u in unstressed syllables. In Middle English there are two distinct ō phonemes, close ō as the reflex of Old English ō , and open ō resulting (a) (except in the north) from the rounding of Old English ā (original or as the result of lengthening of a , in e.g. boat n.¹, old adj. respectively) and (b) from the lengthening of short o in open syllables (in e.g. open adj., throat n.); French loanwords with ō normally show open ō , although close ō is also found before or after labials. In early Middle English open ō is sometimes written oa , but in the Middle English period both open ō and close ō are commonly represented in writing by the same symbol o . In the 14th and 15th centuries oo is also frequently found for both open ō and close ō , alongside more occasional oa for open ō and ou for close ō ; in the north oi is also found for (close) ō . It is only in the 16th cent. that the modern pattern of oo for the reflex of close ō and oa or o..e for the reflex of open ō becomes established (the sounds themselves being affected by this date by the vowel shift outlined below). The writing of o for short o remains unchanged in Middle English, although in the early Middle English period o comes also to be written very frequently for u both before and after n , m , u , and w ; this was purely a graphic development, in order to reduce confusion of minim strokes (see e.g. some pron., son n.¹, and (frequently written at the time with u for later v ) love n.¹). In Middle English short o also arises from shortening in certain contexts of open ō in e.g. long adj.¹, holiday n. In early modern English the reflex of Middle English close ō becomes /uː/ as in moon n.¹ (standard lexical set goose : see J. C. Wells Accents of English (1982) I. p. xviii–xix). Shortening of this sound at an earlier or slightly later period results in /ʌ/ or /ʊ/ in a number of words, as blood n. (lexical set strut ), book n. (lexical set foot ). The reflex of Middle English open ō (in modern English popularly regarded as ‘long o ’) becomes /oː/, with which the Middle English diphthong ou (as in know v., old adj.) later merges (lexical set goat ). In later modern English this becomes a diphthong /oʊ/ (subsequently in British English /əʊ/). Before a following /r/, as in story n., this raising and diphthongization of Middle English open ō does not occur; instead a centring diphthong /ɔə/ develops (lexical set force ). Lengthening of short o to /ɔː/ occurs before final and pre-consonantal /r/, as in or conj.¹ and sort n.² (lexical set north). These two -or- sounds remain distinct from one another down to the 19th cent., after which they are merged in standard British English ( N.E.D. (1902) observes that the identification of the two sounds in London and the south of England ‘is not the case, however, in the educated speech of the country as a whole, nor in America, and the sounds are still separated by most orthoepists..and in dictionaries generally’). Lengthening of short o to /ɔː/ also occurs, probably in the 17th century, in certain varieties of English before final /f/, /s/, and /θ/, and before /f/ and /s/ followed by another consonant (lexical set cloth); this lengthening (indicated still as an alternative to /ɒ/ in N.E.D.'s pronunciation system by ǫ̀) has not been retained in standard British English. In other contexts Middle English short o remains in modern English (lexical set lot), becoming a very open sound /ɒ/ in standard British English. In American English short o has been unrounded to /ɑ/ in many contexts, while in others the rounded sound remains and merges with /ɔ/ derived from short o before r; the reflex of long o before r has also widely merged with this sound in American English.Old English ā remained in northern Middle English dialects and generally became a front vowel in the early modern English period (compare variant forms s.v. more adj.). Old English ō became a front rounded sound in northern Middle English dialects, with a variety of realizations in modern English dialects and Scots (compare variant forms s.v. mood n.¹). The southern English spelling oo has frequently been used to represent the Scots reflex of Old English ū , which was not diphthongized in northern Middle English dialects (compare variant forms of mouth n.). Old English short o , together with o in medieval French loanwords, remained as a back vowel in northern Middle English dialects, frequently spelt with o (compare variant forms s.v. mock v., moss n.¹). In early Old English oe (not found in manuscripts as a ligature) was the i-mutated form of ō and o (as in foet (see foot n. and int.), doeman (see deem v., oele (see ele n.)), probably originally rounded front vowels, but afterwards written (and sounded) simply ē , e . In modern English oe , œ sometimes reproduces the usual Latin spelling of Greek οι , which often in post-classical Latin, and in Romance, was treated like simple ē . In words that have come into English through post-classical Latin or French, or other Romance languages, English has usually a simple e , as in economy n., penal adj.¹, cemetery n.; but in more recent words derived immediately from Latin or Greek, oe is frequently retained, especially (i) in proper names, as Oedipus (see Oedipus n.), Euboea (compare Euboic adj.), Phoebe (see Phoebe n.); (ii) in words referring to classical antiquities, as oecist n., Poecile n. (in which, however, Greek οι is also represented by oi , as oikist ); (iii) in scientific and technical terms, as amoeba n., oenothera n., oestrus n., diœcious adj., diarrhoea n., homoeostasis n., pharmacopoeia n., onomatopoeic adj. In this application the ligature œ was commonly used by printers from the 16th to the 20th centuries. In American English e is generally substituted for oe in these words, though not in proper names. This oe , being originally a diphthong and subsequently a long vowel, is usually pronounced as ‘long e ’, British English /iː/, U.S. /i/, and rarely as ‘short e ’ /ɛ/; when changed to e , it is pronounced in the same ways as ordinary e from Greek and Latin. In French, œ is an occasional spelling for the rounded front vowels in the graphs œi and œu , as in œil , œuf , cœur . When these words are borrowed in English they retain the French spelling; the pronunciation varies: see, e.g., oeil-de-boeuf n., oeillade n., oeuvre n. Oe also occasionally represents German ö. The fancy, frequent in authors of the 16th and 17th centuries, that the shape of the letter O represented the rounded shape of the mouth in forming the sound can be seen from the history of the letter to be without foundation in fact.

Etymology: < resemblance in shape to the letter O (see O n.¹).

Etymology: < Irish ó grandson, descendant (Early Irish aue ; earliest in ogham inscriptions as avi (genitive): see eme n.). Compare oy n.¹The apostrophe probably derives from the Irish length-mark.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps representing the encircling arms of a hug.Compare the following, in which o appears to be used to represent kisses, as an alternative to x (see X n. 6):1878 F. Montgomery Seaforth II. iv. iv. 54 This letter..ends with the inevitable row of kisses,—sometimes expressed by × × × × ×, and sometimes by o o o o o o, according to the taste of the young scribbler.

Etymology: < O int.

Etymology: < O n.³

Etymology: Cognate with Old Saxon eo , io , Old High German eo , io , ieo , (Middle High German ie , German je ), Old Icelandic ǽ , ei , ey , Old Swedish ä , e , Gothic aiw < the same Germanic base as Old High German ēwīn eternity, Old Icelandic æfi an age, lifetime, Old Swedish äve lifetime (Swedish regional äva while, moment), Gothic aiws an age (perhaps compare also Old English ǣ , ǣw law, marriage, Old Frisian ēwa , ēwe law, Old Saxon ēo , ēu law, Old High German ēwa eternity, law (Middle High German ēwe , ē eternity, law, marriage, German Ehe marriage: see e n.²) < the same Indo-European base as Sanskrit āyus lifespan (see Ayurveda n.), ancient Greek αἰών lifetime, αἰεί (Epic) always, αἰέν always, classical Latin aevum an age, a long time.The Old English form ō probably developed from original ā by a process of shortening and rounding in low-stress positions, with subsequent restressing and lengthening (compare Old English nā , nō at no adv.¹, and see R. M. Hogg Gram. Old Eng. (1992) I. §5.7, D. Ringe & A. Taylor Devel. Old Eng. (2014) 171). In Middle English after the rounding of Old English long ā in southern and midland dialects o became the usual form in these areas, apparently chiefly representing the reflex of Old English ā , although it would have been graphically identical with the reflex of Old English ō (it is unclear whether the two reflexes converged phonologically; this may perhaps have occurred in some dialects where the reflex of Old English ō had a more open sound than long close ō ); in northern Middle English a is the usual form. Both forms were ultimately displaced by the cognate ay adv. from early Scandinavian.

Etymology: In Old English liturgical use probably < classical Latin ō (see below); in subsequent use probably < Old French Ô, vocative marker, expression of emotion or surprise (end of the 10th cent.) and its etymon classical Latin ō, vocative marker, (also ōh ) expression of emotion or surprise. Compare ancient Greek ὦ (also ὤ ), vocative particle ( > Old Church Slavonic o ), ὤ (also ὦ ), expression of surprise or emotion, Early Irish, Irish a , vocative particle, Old Welsh, Welsh a , vocative particle, Lithuanian o , vocative particle, expression of surprise or emotion, Latvian a , ā , expression of surprise or emotion. Although it is possible to regard all these forms as ultimately cognate with each other, the possiblity of independent formation of such a natural utterance is very likely. Similar expressions of appeal, surprise, or emotion are also widely attested in non-Indo-European languages. Middle Low German ō , Old High German ō (Middle High German ō , German o , oh ), Old Icelandic ó , Old Swedish o , oo (Swedish o ), Danish o , all as vocative markers and as expressions of appeal, surprise, or emotion, are probably also at least in part ultimately borrowings from Latin (many of the earliest examples appear to have been influenced by uses in Latin biblical texts), although Old High German ō may in some instances represent a variant of au , expression of surprise or pain (Middle High German ou , German au ), and once again the possibility of recurrent independent formation is likely; compare also Gothic o (two attestations: once translating Greek ὦ , vocative particle, and once translating οὐά vah int.). Compare oh int.In Old English o occurs frequently as a vocative marker in the interlinear gloss of the Latin Hymns preserved in MS Durham B.iii.32 (often when O is not present in the Latin). Apart from occurrences in this text Old English o is rare; and Latin O is more commonly rendered by lā or ēalā (compare quot. OE² at sense A. 1). In Middle English O often varies with a int.¹, especially in northern writers. Wyclif has O (or A ) only when O is in the Vulgate. With sense B. 2 compare post-classical Latin o O antiphon (c1130; c1330 in British sources), also o sapientia (c1250, c1330 in British sources). The O antiphons are recorded in Gregory the Great (6th cent.).