V

V is the twenty-second letter in the modern Latin alphabet.

Like F and the Greek letter Upsilon (also spelled Ypsilon), V evolved from the Phoenician letter Waw. In Etruscan it was simplified to V and had the sound value /u/, but since F came to represent /f/ in Latin rather than /w/, the Romans used V for both /w/ and /u/, as in EQVVS. In some Roman handwriting styles, it was written as a modern uppercase V, while in others like uncial it resembled modern lowercase u. With the Mediaeval introduction of the distinction between both cases, the pair was written as V/u, as in Vniuersitas. In Romance languages, V came to represent /v/ which developed from /w/; Around the Renaissance, U and V were felt as sounds different enough to warrant their own letters, and a lowercase v and an uppercase U were developed. A similar evolution happened with I/J.

German W (or double u, from VV) originally was pronounced as the English letter – but has been pronounced /v/ since Middle High German times. At the same time, V was pronounced in German as in English, but the German 'Vau' soon stood for /f/ again (the same is probably now happening in Dutch). However, it is still pronounced as /v/ in German words of foreign origin.

See IPA chart for English for pronunciation key.

Victor represents the letter V in the NATO phonetic alphabet.

Meanings for V

• In biochemistry, V is the symbol for valine.
• In chemistry, V is the symbol for vanadium.
• In communication, V is the name of a hand gesture; see V sign
• In computer science,
  • V is an operation on a semaphore, used for process synchronisation.
  • V is the name of an operating system developed at Stanford University.
• In electrical engineering, V is the symbol for voltage (also known as electric potential, see below).
• In financial securities, V is the stock symbol for Vivendi Universal.
• In grammar, v is an abbreviation for verb.
• In international licence plate codes, V stands for Vatican City.
• In the Metric system, V is the symbol for volt, the SI derived unit for electric potential.
• In physics, v is often a variable for speed or velocity.
• As the first letter of a postal code,
  • In Canada, V stands for British Columbia.
• In Roman numerals, V denotes the number five.
• In literature, Thomas Pynchon's first novel is called V. (including the period).
• In television, V is the name of a science fiction TV series
• In music,
  • the roman numeral V is the dominant scale degree, chord, or diatonic function, when distinguished V = major and v = minor.
  • V is the name of a band from the United Kingdom; see V (band).
  • V is the name of an album released by the band Live in 2001.
• V is the name of a drink produced by Frucor in New Zealand.
• A V engine is an internal combustion engine configuration.

See also