The Omicron Variant
As a theoretical physicist I use Greek characters all the time in mathematical work but, being very slow on the uptake, I only just realized a few days ago that the name of the Greek letter ‘omicron’ (ο) is derived from the Greek meaning ‘little-o’ while the name ‘omega’ means ‘big o’.
More recently still a Greek friend of mine pointed out that the lower-case symbol for omega (ω) was originally formed as ‘oo’, i.e. double-o.
In modern Greek ο and ω are pronounced the same but in ancient Greek the vocalisation of ω was longer than that of ο, suggesting that οmicron is more like short ‘o’ than little ‘o’ while omega is long `o’ rather than big ‘o’.
Incidentally, I was brought up to pronounce π like “pie” but in most of Europe (including Greece) it is pronounced “pee”. It is in fact the Greek letter ‘p’. I feel I’ve been delta very weak hand when it comes to Greek pronunciation and I’ll beta majority of theoretical physicists feel the same. I think we need to take a nu approach in schools, and rho back from the old ways. Anyway I’m going home now to eta bit of curry for supper…
Follow @telescoper
In the Dark 
November 30, 2021 at 8:57 pm
Try not to rho your eyes and dip your nu and beta finger too many times into the curry π when you eta supper!
Yours sincerely,
SoundEagle
December 2, 2021 at 5:49 pm
Don’t be too buZETA enjoy yourself.
December 19, 2021 at 7:04 pm
Thanks! Now I feel stupid
December 20, 2021 at 9:23 am
Let us put this info in good use: I suggest the use of \omicron() and \Omega() to express order of magnitudes instead of o() and O()…