OMICRON
Omicron (US: , UK: ; uppercase Ο, lowercase ο, Greek: όμικρον) is the fifteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. This letter is derived from the Phoenician letter ayin: . In classical Greek, omicron represented the close-mid back rounded vowel [o] in contrast to omega, which represented the open-mid back rounded vowel [ɔː], and the digraph ⟨ου⟩ which represented the long close back rounded vowel [uː]. In modern Greek, both omicron and omega represent the mid back rounded vowel [o̞]. Letters that arose from omicron include Roman O and Cyrillic O and Ю. The name of the letter was originally οὖ (oû [ûː]), but it was later changed to ὂ μικρόν (ò mikrón 'small o') in the Middle Ages to distinguish the letter from omega ⟨ω⟩, whose name means 'big o', as both letters had come to be pronounced [o]. In modern Greek, its name has fused into όμικρον (ómikron). In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 70.
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