Source etymology 1
Original entry ↗A vocative or exclamative particle appended to street cries, nautical calls, or names to project a hail or shout. · A colloquializing suffix, typically appended to names, abbreviations of long words, or substantive uses of adjectives.
Etymology tree Latin ō Old French ohbor. Middle English o English O ▲ Middle English o English oh English -o Originally a special use of the interjection O or oh appended to street cries and nautical calls to project a hail or shout (as in milk-oh, smoke-oh, and sail-ho). Its later use as a colloquializing noun suffix, particularly prominent in Australian English, developed from the substantivation of these cries (e.g., smoko), reinforced by early nautical adaptations of Mediterranean Lingua Franca or pseudo‐Spanish words (such as guardo). As noted by the Australian National Dictionary, this vocative “hailing” origin naturally led to its frequent attachment to personal names to form nicknames (e.g., John‐o, Jacko). Some senses may also derive from o (“one”), from Middle English o, oo, a variant of a, on, oon, an (“one”). See one and -y.
Relationships mentioned by the source
These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.
- Inherited-form mentionoenm
Inspect preserved source fields
Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.
{
"templates": [
{
"name": "etymon",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "O<id:vocative>",
"3": "oh<id:surprise>",
"id": "vocative",
"tree": "1"
},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nLatin ō\nOld French ohbor.\nMiddle English o\nEnglish O\n▲\nMiddle English o\nEnglish oh\nEnglish -o\n[Appendix:Glossary#loanword|Borrowed]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"vocative\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Latin\", \"term\" : \"ō\", \"lang\" : \"la\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"lang_name\" : \"Old French\", \"term\" : \"oh\", \"status\" : \"inline\", \"lang\" : \"fro\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"bor\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"o\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"O\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }, { \"id\" : \"surprise\", \"children\" : [ { \"terms\" : [ { \"is_duplicate\" : true, \"children\" : [ ], \"id\" : \"oh\", \"status\" : { \"1\" : \"enm\", \"2\" : \":bor\", \"3\" : \"fro:oh<ety:inh<la:ō<id:vocative>>>\", \"id\" : \"oh\" }, \"lang_name\" : \"Middle English\", \"term\" : \"o\", \"lang\" : \"enm\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"Inherited from\", \"keyword\" : \"inherited\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"oh\", \"lang\" : \"en\" } ], \"keyword_label\" : \"From\", \"keyword\" : \"from\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"-o\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"vocative\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"-o\" id=\"English:_vocative\">"
},
{
"name": "inh",
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "enm",
"3": "o"
},
"expansion": "Middle English o"
},
{
"name": "etymon",
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"1": "en",
"2": "O<id:vocative>",
"3": "oh<id:surprise>",
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},
"expansion": "Etymology tree\nLatin ō\nOld French ohbor.\nMiddle English o\nEnglish O\n▲\nMiddle English o\nEnglish oh\nEnglish -o"
}
],
"links": [
[
"ō",
"o#Latin:_vocative"
],
[
"oh",
"oh#Old_French"
],
[
"o",
"o#Middle_English:_oh"
],
[
"O",
"O#English:_vocative"
],
[
"o",
"o#Middle_English:_oh"
],
[
"oh",
"oh#English:_surprise"
],
[
"O",
"O#English"
],
[
"oh",
"oh#English"
],
[
"street cries",
"street cry"
],
[
"nautical",
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],
[
"call",
"call"
],
[
"project",
"project"
],
[
"hail",
"hail"
],
[
"shout",
"shout"
],
[
"milk-oh",
"milk-oh#English"
],
[
"smoke-oh",
"smoke-oh#English"
],
[
"sail-ho",
"sail-ho#English"
],
[
"Australian English",
"Australian English"
],
[
"substantivation",
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[
"smoko",
"smoko#English"
],
[
"Mediterranean Lingua Franca",
"Mediterranean Lingua Franca"
],
[
"guardo",
"guardo#English"
],
[
"o",
"o#English"
],
[
"o",
"o#Middle_English"
],
[
"oo",
"oo#Middle_English"
],
[
"a",
"a#English"
],
[
"on",
"on#Middle_English"
],
[
"oon",
"oon#Middle_English"
],
[
"an",
"an#Middle_English"
],
[
"one",
"one#English"
],
[
"-y",
"-y#English"
]
],
"references": [],
"descendants": [],
"lexical": [
{
"pos": "suffix",
"glosses": [
"A vocative or exclamative particle appended to street cries, nautical calls, or names to project a hail or shout.",
"A colloquializing suffix, typically appended to names, abbreviations of long words, or substantive uses of adjectives."
],
"tags": [
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"morpheme"
],
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"sourceRecordOrdinal": 226141
}
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}