Perhaps you have previously wondered why ‘number’ is abbreviated as ‘no.’ even though it contains ‘o. This phenomenon has nothing to do with poor spelling; rather, it is a legacy from Latin: the base form of numerus is ‘numero’ (from which no. is derived), which is an ablative case meaning, ‘by the number.’ The use of this abbreviation has been found in the English language since about 1660, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, and has always kept its Latin spellings when we started using short forms in our modern way of writing.The use of an abbreviation referred to as a ‘numero sign’ (№) was very common among medieval manuscripts that would have placed the superscript ‘o ’ over the letter after a number to show that it had been contracted. Both these uses are contractions designed to conserve the use of precious parchment. While an abbreviation like ‘nu’ would provide more sense, the letter ‘o’ will remain included in the abbreviated use because of history.
What is the actual ‘o ‘ mystery while abbreviating ‘number’ as ‘no.’
The letter ‘o ’ found in the abbreviation of the term ‘number’ comes from how the Latin word for number, ‘numero’, is written- the letters have not changed from their Latin roots despite English having evolved into a different language with different conventions of spelling.In Latin, the noun ‘numerus’ means number and ‘numero’ means ‘by the number’ (ablative case). The fact that English speakers today still use the Latin abbreviation for ‘number’ is a direct evolution from this Latin word.Sometime in the 1600’s, when ledger-keepers or scientists labelled items, they said ‘item, by the number 10’. The letter ‘o ’ was kept in the final version of the word, which means the Latin abbreviation has been retained through this entire process.
The rise of the numero sign (№)
Long prior to the invention of the printing press, medieval manuscript creators were adept at writing on cost-prohibitive surfaces like parchment and vellum (made from animal hides), which predated the widespread use of paper.To save available space, scribes invented a method referred to as ‘brevigraphs,’ in which letters were combined into a single symbol. According to Cambridge University Press, the numeral sign (№) was created by putting an elevated small (o) near the letter (N).While the № symbol was a staple of classical typography, the advent of typewriters and early computers actually pushed us toward the simpler ‘no.’ format we use today.
Beyond ‘no,’ other abbreviations also exist
The ‘O’ mystery is not a one-off occurrence. There are many other similar examples utilising different letters from the original abbreviation or where the letter doesn’t correspond to a word in modern-day English.Here are some of the examples-
- lb (pound); derived from the Latin word libra (scales).
- oz (ounce); derived from the Old Italian word onza.
- & (ampersand); According to the research published in ResearchGate, this symbol originally represented the Latin word for ‘and’ (et). It began as a ligature of e and t.
Why ‘nu.’ is never used for ‘number’
‘No.’ was used in law and science as an abbreviation more than a hundred years before ‘number’ was introduced into English as a formally recognised spelling of the word ‘number.’In the era of early printing, because it was so easy to confuse ‘Nu’ with ‘New’ or other common prefixes derived from Latin, the use of ‘No.’ (frequently with a line drawn under the letter ‘o ‘) provided a definitive, clear alternative to ‘number’.
