For centuries , Owas used in English lit to surrender longing , rapture , and melancholy in the package of a single letter . It appears in the writing of William Blake , T.S. Eliot , and even in the King James Bible . But today you ’d be hard - pressed to find anyone using the word outside a Shakespeare festival . So what caused the death of literature ’s preferent exclaiming ?
accord toDouglasKneale , a learner of Romantic poesy and administrator at the University of Windsor , William Wordsworth and poet like him may have setO ’s declension into motion . The amorous poet was known for trying to “ democratize ” language and move it away from the sublime , conventionalize verse that was standard in poetry at the time . “ He tried to find a spoken language really spoken by gentleman’s gentleman , ” Kneale toldThe Paris Review . O , which was used to invoke people , thing , or approximation that were n’t present , was exactly the type of language Wordsworth was trying to ward off .
Even asObecame less popular , major poets like E.E. Cummings were still using the word in dear during the modernist period . It was around this clock time that writer were set out to tack that sneakyhonto the end ofohand use the two words interchangeably .
As we moved profoundly into the 20th century , speech communication evolve until the classicalOeventually became affiliate with ironic usage and old - timey writers in knee pants and powdered wigs . Today the modernizedohreigns in its plaza . The Oxford English definesO , an archaic spelling ofoh , as an exclamation that is used to call something or someone . Ohis also specify as an ecphonesis , but the dictionary does n’t mention it being used as an invocation . This foreground what we lost fromOwhen the English - speaking world decided to add on the extra missive . What was once the ultimate verbal expression of emotional unassumingness has become a punching bag for satirists , and language has yet to come up with a perfect permutation . Next time you sit down to translate quixotic poetry , try replacing all theOs withohs in your head to verify if you may hear a difference — you may find that “ Oh headwaiter ! My police chief ! ” does n’t quite pack the same puncher .
[ h / t : The Paris Review ]
