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To: Cats Pajamas

I read that some islands are named: Corona, Delta and Omicron too.


2,066 posted on 12/23/2021 9:12:16 AM PST by GYPSY286
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To: GYPSY286

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omicron_Islands


2,071 posted on 12/23/2021 9:30:34 AM PST by Cats Pajamas (President Trump won so big he broke their algorithm!)
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To: GYPSY286; little jeremiah; Melian

Etymology
Excerpt
omicron (n.)
15th letter of the Greek alphabet, c. 1400, literally “small ‘o,’ “ from o + Greek (s)mikros “small” (see micro-). So called because the vowel was “short” in ancient Greek. Compare omega.
Entries linking to omicron

O
fifteenth letter of the alphabet, from a character that in Phoenician was called ‘ain (literally “eye”) and represented “a very peculiar and to us unpronounceable guttural” [Century Dictionary]. The Greeks also lacked the sound, so when they adopted the Phoenician letters they arbitrarily changed O’s value to a vowel. (Thus there is no grounds for the belief that the form of the letter represents the shape of the mouth in pronouncing it.) The Greeks later added a special character for “long” O (omega), and the original became “little o” (omicron).

In Middle English and later colloquial use, o or o’ can be an abbreviation of on or of, and is still literary in some words (o’clock, Jack-o’-lantern, tam-o’-shanter, cat-o’-nine-tails, will-o’-the-wisp, etc.).
O’ the common prefix in Irish surnames is from Irish รณ, ua (Old Irish au, ui) “descendant.”

The “connective” -o- is the usual connecting vowel in compounds taken or formed from Greek, where it often is the vowel in the stem. “[I]t is affixed, not only to terms of Greek origin, but also to those derived from Latin (Latin compounds of which would have been formed with the L. connecting or reduced thematic vowel, -i), especially when compounds are wanted with a sense that Latin composition, even if possible, would not warrant, but which would be authorized by the principles of Greek composition.” [OED]

As “zero” in Arabic numerals it is attested from c. 1600, from the similarity of shape. Similarly the O blood type (1926) was originally “zero,” denoting the absence of A and B agglutinogens.

As a gauge of track in model railroads, by 1905. For o as an interjection of fear, surprise, joy, etc., see oh.

The use of the colloquial or slang -o suffix in wino, ammo, combo, kiddo, the names of the Marx Brothers, etc., “is widespread in English-speaking countries but nowhere more so than in Australia” [OED


2,109 posted on 12/23/2021 11:28:32 AM PST by Cats Pajamas (President Trump won so big he broke their algorithm!)
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