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OP
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Kia ora all, For those of you intrigued, I stumbled upon an interesting (to me anyway) article on, Zero. I was in search of an answer to satiate my 'inquisitiveididity' about the misappropriated use of the letter 'Oh' instead of zero. As in double 'Oh' Seven. Instead of double Zero Seven. I didn't find an answer to my 'pet peeve' but I did learn something about the origins of number systems. Have a read and let me know your thoughts. If you wish, please help me to overcome my dislike of the 'oh'usage, or help me understand why people say 'oh' instead of Zero. here it is: Zero
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veteran
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I think most people in the past 45 (at least) years have learned and referred to our numeric system as the "hindu-arabic" system. Zero is maybe one of the most important discoveries (or inventions, if you prefer) of all time. In the west, we became familiar with the Arabic number system via Fibonacci's "Liber Abaci" or "book of counting" (and a few other works). He had a hard time selling the idea to the educated people of his time before the book - scholars were still using roman numerals. Fibonacci's father was a merchant who had payed a "blackamoor" to tutor his son.
On a slightly different topic, but also interesting, some ancient cultures (egyptians, e.g.) used only unitary fractions; that is, fractions in which the numerator is exactly 1. So they would not write 5/6, but 1/2 + 1/3.
The idea of equations is fairly recent (I think it was like something like the 1500s or 1600s). Prior to that people would write out word sentences.
A lot of the stuff that we take for granted in math today took a very, very long time for people to figure out.
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Carpal Tunnel
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please help me to overcome my dislike of the 'oh'usage, or help me understand why people say 'oh' instead of Zero. They look alike. Our good friend Context generally lets us know which is meant. 'Oh' is easier to say than 'zero.'
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... In the west, we became familiar with the Arabic number system via Fibonacci's "Liber Abaci" or "book of counting" (and a few other works).
And Vegas has never been the same. [/channelling TEd]
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Pooh-Bah
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To the nihilish mathematics, including the concept of zero, is an artificial concept of the mind: Nothing is entirely anything, while everything is part sf something else, and therefore there cannot be zero of anything
Last edited by dalehileman; 04/18/07 08:25 PM.
dalehileman
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Way back when in computer terms, it was the letter o which was slashed and not the digit 0. I still see folks who learned to type, before it became known as keyboarding, who replace the digit 1 with lowercase l and use lowercase o for zero: e.g., 2ool, instead of 2001.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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it's like Faldage (almost) said, olly: laziness. it may have well had its start in the military, but at least the earliest citation in OED is from time-telling: At oh-eight-thirty-hours..
if it's of any consolation to you, I know someone who gets extremely contravivulated* by this usage.
-joe (*bent out of shape) friday
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OP
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Laziness seems to initiate many changes in our language, however, do we accept the change or do we become complacent? Are we accepting of the change or should we be correct? If not correct how do we proceed? Anyway, I think Zero should be zero and 'oh' should be 'oh'. As simple as the words themselves are is as they should remain. Thank you for your varied and knowledgeable input. Still contravivulatedly yours, Olly.
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One wonders how long .30-06 has been pronounced "thirty ought six"? James Bond has always been 007, i.e., "double-oh seven" or "double-nought seven" ŕ la Jethro Bodine. For me, the year 2007 could be "two thousand (and) seven", "twenty oh seven", "oh seven", "ought seven", but never "zero seven". It's not really complacency, but how the language is used. Zero is Zephyrus, the west wind, the void and empty.
Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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OP
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I should view the language as an evolving entity able to bend in the gentlest of Zephyrs. Your explanation has uncontravivulated me.
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