In Greek, a variation of the form later came to distinguish this long sound ( Omega, meaning "large O") from the short o (Omicron, meaning "small o"). The letter was adopted with this value in the Old Italic alphabets, including the early Latin alphabet.
The use of this Phoenician letter for a vowel sound is due to the early Greek alphabets, which adopted the letter as O "omicron" to represent the vowel /o/. Its original sound value was that of a consonant, probably, the sound represented by the cognate Arabic letter ع ʿayn. ʿeyn, meaning "eye", and indeed its shape originates simply as a drawing of a human eye (possibly inspired by the corresponding Egyptian hieroglyph, cf. Its graphic form has remained fairly constant from Phoenician times until today.
Late Renaissance or early Baroque design of an O, from 1627
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