Why is it that the abbreviation of numbers is "nos."?

Question

I just wanna know, so anyone who can give me a good fact could help me a lot. thanks. hope to hear from you soon.

Answer 1

Picador and Turtle have the right idea, but the wrong origin.

The abbreviation "no" is not from French or Spanish but, like many English abbreviations, based on a specific form of a LATIN word ("numero").

(At the time when many of these abbreviations were created, ALL scholarly writing in England, and Europe generally, was done in Latin. In the case of English, a number of the old Latin abbreviations were regarded as handy and well-known enough to keep, even after scholars shifted to writing their works in English.)

Interesting thing is the BASE (or 'nominative') form of this word in Latin is "numerus". The form "numero" is in what's called the "ablative case" -- a form used with the sense here of "in number". That's because this was the sense most useful to scholars who first created this abbreviation.

A couple of special things to note about that final "-o"

a) as a "case ending" it was used to very specifically indicate HOW the word functions in the sentence (at a time when that made a difference to the meaning of the sentence). It is NOT a matter of 'abbreviations sometimes using the first and last letters of a word' (that is, it is NOT the same as "Mr" for "mister"). The "o" is, in fact NOT a "part of the word" itslelf. That is, it's not part of the root, but just a standard case ending that could be added to all sorts of words.

b) older practice (still seen, esp. on signs), was to print the "o" as a small raised letter (or "superscript"), usually underlined. This indicated that it was a case ending and NOT part of the word's root.

Another note about Latin abbreviations in English. You know, of course, to say "number" when you see "no". That is, even though it is based on a Latin word, you do NOT say the Latin word when you see it. (That's why it's now common to add the English plural marker "s" -- to give you "nos".) I add that because people sometimes DO try to speak the Latin. For example, when you see "i.e." say there is" (NOT "id est"), for "e.g." say "for example", for "etc" say= "and so forth" (no, you do NOT need to say "et cetera"!) In other words, don't try to use the Latin, and for that matter don't just pronounce the letters ("i.e", "e.g") unless you are making some special point. Just use the English equivalent.

Answer 2

It's an old style of abbreviation where you keep the first & last letter of a word and throw out the rest. In this case "no" comes from French "numéro". French also has "Mme" for "Madame", "Messrs" for "Messieurs" (plural of "Monsieur"). In English, "Mr" for "Mister" is the same style, even though the French abbreviation for "Monsieur" is just "M.".

Answer 3

Webster doesn't seem to know either. My guess would be "numero" , which is a certain form of number in French, and Spanish, of course.

Answer 4

's skill is. So it is = it fairly is. what's = what's. don't get mixed up with its, its is like saying that pencil is yours, hers, theirs etc and is possessive and does not require apostrophe. although, 's is possessive while it is for a individual; John's pencil, and not Johns pencil.

Answer 5

NOBODY NOS.