In English we normally use "nos" to abbreviate "numbers".?

Question

As the word "numbers" has no "o" in it, where does this abbreviation come from?

Answer 1

Many English words have their roots in another language, French/Greek/Latin for example. Number comes from the Latin "numero", hence the abbreviation to "no".

Answer 2

True, it is from Latin "numero". But why?

Actually, if you look the word up in a Latin dictionary you'll find "numerus". "Numero" is the "ablative case" form. The ablative form was used here because that fit the usage English writers needed when they introduced the form into English in the 17th century (in expressions of the sort "men, in number three").

A couple of notes on this form & how to use it:

1) The numero sign used to always use a RAISED (or "superscript") O. (Typewriters could not handle this very well, unless you wanted to manually move the carriage up and down. But wordprocessing, personal computing make it much easier.) This use of a superscript at the end is another indicator that the letter stands for the case ENDING, rather than, say, the second letter of the word.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numero_sign

2) Even though the abbreviation is borrowed from the Latin, you should never SAY the Latin word when you see it. That's just an unusual habit in English -- to use Latin abbreviations to stand for English words.

In the same way, when you see "e.g." you say "for example"; for "i.e." say "that is", for "viz." say "namely"; for "cf." say "compare"; and for "etc." say "and so forth". (Many other European languages have equivalent abbreviations, but base them on their OWN language.)
See: http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19971217
and list - http://list-of-latin-phrases.area51.ipupdater.com/

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And why Latin at all??

Simple explanation:

Latin was the international language of Europe for centuries, and a means by which scholars from every country could communicate. When academics started to write in their native languages, they still KNEW the Latin... and many found the familiar Latin abbreviations easy to use, rather than inventing new ones. That became the norm for English.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_abbreviations

Answer 3

Numero is number. Hence the abbreviation is no.

Answer 4

It is based on the Latin numero.

№ is the Numero sign, often written as no. when there is no sub scripted o available.

The № is used in many languages, usually for names and titles.

Answer 5

Good question I think its something to do with the latin term for numbers!

Answer 6

The correct notation is "No's" from the latin numero meaning number.

Answer 7

wonderful question can't answer but have learnt a lot!

Answer 8

I second bruhaha's answer!

Answer 9

Good question and my answer is that I have no idea.

Answer 10

No.