Omega


Omega is the twenty-fourth and last letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/isopsephy, it has a value of 800. The name of the letter was originally ὦ, but it was later changed to in the Middle Ages to distinguish it from omicron, whose name means 'small o', as both letters had come to be pronounced. In modern Greek, its name has fused into ωμέγα.
In phonetic terms, the Ancient Greek Ω represented a long open-mid back rounded vowel, in contrast to omicron, which represented the close-mid back rounded vowel, and the digraph, which represented the long close back rounded vowel. In modern Greek, both omega and omicron represent the mid back rounded vowel. The letter omega is transliterated into a Latin-script alphabet as or simply.
As the final letter in the Greek alphabet, omega is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set, in contrast to alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet; see Alpha and Omega.

History

Ω was not part of the early Greek alphabets. It was introduced in the late 7th century BC in the Ionian cities of Asia Minor to denote a long open-mid back rounded vowel. It is a variant of omicron, broken up at the side, with the edges subsequently turned outward. The Dorian city of Knidos as well as a few Aegean islands, namely Paros, Thasos and Melos, chose the exact opposite innovation, using a broken-up circle for the short and a closed circle for the long.
The name Ωμέγα is Byzantine; in Classical Greek, the letter was called ō , whereas the omicron was called ou . The modern lowercase shape goes back to the uncial form, a form that developed during the 3rd century BC in ancient handwriting on papyrus, from a flattened-out form of the letter that had its edges curved even further upward.
In addition to the Greek alphabet, Omega was also adopted into the early Cyrillic alphabet. A Raetic variant is conjectured to be at the origin or parallel evolution of the Elder Futhark ᛟ.
Omega was also adopted into the Latin alphabet, as a letter of the 1982 revision to the African reference alphabet. It is in sparse use.

The symbol Ω (uppercase letter)

The uppercase letter Ω is used as a symbol:
The minuscule letter ω is used as a symbol:
*