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<div>At 1:41 PM -0400 7/31/01, Gareth Branwyn wrote:</div>
<blockquote type="cite" cite>"Baker, John" wrote:<br>
<br>
> The trisyllabic "period" is just too long and
awkward.<br>
<br>
This was always my guess as to the reason for its origins (and so as
not<br>
to confuse it with a full stop). Also, in Unix, there is the use of
the<br>
word "bang" for "!" which I always assumed was so
that one doesn't have<br>
to say "exclamation point."</blockquote>
<div><br></div>
<div>Along the same lines, wonder how long "O" (i.e. [o])
has been used for zeros by virtue of the same sort of reduction
process. Shakespeare uses "o" for "cipher", i.e.
a metaphoric zero--</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Lear i. iv. 212 Now thou art an O without a figure, I am better
then thou art now; I am a Foole, thou art nothing.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--but do we know whether zero was read as "o" in
multidigit numbers and dates? When<i> Lear</i> was first
written in 1605, was the date pronounced "Sixteen oh
five"?</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>larry </div>
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