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Origin and history of V

V

as an alphabetic character, the older form of -U-, and the two letters were used interchangeably through Middle English, with a preference for v- as the initial letter (vnder, vain, etc.) and -u- elsewhere (full, euer, etc.).

The distinction into consonant and vowel identities was established in English by 1630, under influence of continental printers, but into 19c. some dictionaries and other catalogues sometimes mingled U and V words as a single series, as they also did with I and J.

No native Anglo-Saxon words begin in v- except those (vane, vat, vixen) altered by the southwestern England habit of replacing initial f- with v- (and initial s- with z-). Confusion of -v- and -w- also was a characteristic of 16c. Cockney accents.

As a Roman numeral, "five;" before the introduction of Arabic numerals, V was used in Middle English to represent the ordinal number 5. Of V-shaped objects or arrangements, by 1832: V-eight as a type of motor engine is recorded from 1929 (V-engine is attested from 1909), so called for the arrangement. V-neck in clothing is by 1879.

Mr. D.—"Is that your new dress?"

Mrs. D.—"Yes. It is right in style. How do you like it?"

Mr. D—"Seems to me the neck is fearfully low."

Mrs. D.—"Oh, that is all right. It is the very latest cut. That is called a V neck."

Mr. D—"Indeed! I should call it a C neck."

[Vermont Sentry, Feb. 7, 1884]

In German rocket weapons systems of World War II, it stood for Vergeltungswaffe "reprisal weapon."

The V for "victory" hand sign was conceived January 1941 by Belgian politician and resistance leader Victor de Laveleye, to signify French victoire and Flemish vrijheid ("freedom"). It was broadcast into Europe by Radio België/Radio Belgique and popularized by the BBC by June 1941, from which time it became a universal allied gesture.

Entries linking to V

10th letter of the English alphabet, pronounced "jay," as "kay" for -k-, but formerly the name of the letter was written out as jy, and it was pronounced to rhyme with -i- and correspond to French ji.

A latecomer to the alphabet, it originally had no sound value. The letter began as a scribal modification of Roman -i- in continental Medieval Latin. The scribes added a "hook" to small -i-, especially in the final position in a word or roman numeral, to distinguish it from the strokes of other letters. (The dot on the -i-, and thus the -j-, and the capitalization of the pronoun I are other solutions to the same problems).

No word beginning with J is of Old English derivation. [OED, 1989]

In English, -j- was used as a roman numeral throughout Middle English, but the letter -y- came to be used to spell words ending an "i" sound. Thus -j- was not needed to represent a sound.

It was given a sound in English c. 1600-1640 to take up the consonantal sound that had evolved in the Romance languages from the Roman initial i-. In Italian, g- was used to represent this, but the other languages used j-. In Spanish this was established before 1600. As a result of its late appearance, it is one of the most stable English letters, having almost always the same sound.

English dictionaries did not distinguish words beginning in -i- and -j- until 19c., and -j- formerly was skipped when letters were used to express serial order.

In Latin texts printed in modern times, -j- often is used to represent Latin -i- before -a-, -e-, -o-, -u- in the same syllable, which in Latin was sounded as the consonant in Modern English you, yam, etc., but the custom has been controversial among Latinists:

The character J, j, which represents the letter sound in some school-books, is an invention of the seventeenth century, and is not found in MSS., nor in the best texts of the Latin authors. [Lewis]

In English words from Hebrew, -j- represents yodh, which was equivalent to English consonantal y (hence hallelujah) but many of the Hebrew names later were conformed in sound to the modern -j- (compare Jesus).

vane(n.)

"plate metal wind indicator," mid-14c. (late 13c. as phane), a southern England alteration (see V) of fane "flag, banner." As "plate or blade of a windmill" by 1580s.