Editing O (section)

==History==
{| class="wikitable"
! Egyptian
! Phoenician<br/>[[Ayin]]
! Western Greek<br/>[[Omicron]]
! Etruscan<br>O
! Latin<br/>O
|--- align=center
|[[File:Hieroglyph D4.svg|class=skin-invert-image|alt=Egyptian Hieroglyph describing an eye|45px]]
|[[File:PhoenicianO-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|30px]]
|[[File:Greek Omicron 04.svg|class=skin-invert-image|30px]]
|[[File:EtruscanO-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|25px]]
|[[File:Capitalis monumentalis O.SVG|class=skin-invert-image|x30px|Latin O]]
|}

[[File:Newes ABC Buchlein MET DP855603.jpg|thumb|180px|left|Late [[Renaissance]] or early [[Baroque]] design of an O, from 1627]]
Its graphic form has remained fairly constant from [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]] times until today. The name of the Phoenician letter was ''[[Ayin|ʿeyn]]'', meaning "eye", and its shape originates simply as a drawing of a human eye (possibly inspired by the corresponding [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyph]], {{Cf.}}[[Proto-Sinaitic script]]). Its original sound value was that of a consonant, probably {{IPAblink|ʕ}}, the sound represented by the cognate [[Arabic alphabet|Arabic letter]] [[ع|ع ''ʿayn'']].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Evolution of Alphabets |url=https://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/evolalpha.html |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=webspace.ship.edu}}</ref>

The use of this Phoenician letter for a vowel sound is due to the early [[Greek alphabet]]s, which adopted the letter "[[omicron]]" to represent the vowel {{IPA|/o/}}. The letter was adopted with the value in the [[Old Italic alphabets]], including the [[early Latin alphabet]]. In Greek, a variation of the form later came to differentiate this long sound ([[omega]], meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o"). The Greek omicron gave rise to the corresponding [[O (Cyrillic)|Cyrillic letter O]].<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Cyrillic script |url=https://www.omniglot.com/writing/cyrillic.htm |access-date=2024-01-03 |website=www.omniglot.com}}</ref>