When We Abbreviate ‘Number’ As ‘No.’, Where Does The ‘O’ Come From?

Abbreviations make life so much easier. Imagine having to write the full form of NASA or AIDS every time you wrote about them. Would have been so inconvenient, right? While we know the exact meaning behind these abbreviations, there are some whose meanings we still don’t know. Take no. for example. Whenever we want to write the word number, without even realising, we tend to write ‘no.’. 

Whenever we use it though, we never actually wonder why is it ‘no.’ and not ‘nm’ or ‘nb’ or ‘nu’ or ‘nr’. So what’s the reason behind this? 

Well, Quora user Nipun Sher has the answer! 

The English language is known to borrow bits and pieces of other languages and dialects. Like ounce is denoted as oz because the Italian word for ounce is ‘onza’.

Check Out – Short Forms We Use Every Day

When it comes to ‘number’, it’s abbreviation has been derived from the Latin word ‘numero’ which is represented with the symbol – №. The symbol is of course called the numero symbol, and can also be written as – Nº, No, No. or no., and for plural – Nos. or nos.

So there you have it folks, now you no where it comes from!