W
/ˈdʌbəljuː/noun
The twenty-third letter of the modern English alphabet, representing several consonant sounds including /w/.
Did you know?W was created in the early medieval period by writing two U-shaped letters together, because Old English needed a symbol for a sound Latin’s alphabet lacked.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Sinaitic, c. 1800 BCE
Proto-Sinaitic
𐤅
“A letter associated with a hook or peg, ancestral to later forms of W’s U/V family.”
Ancient Phoenician, c. 1000 BCE
Phoenician
𐤅 waw
“A letter named waw, representing a consonant and later influencing the Greek letter upsilon.”
Ancient Greek, c. 800 BCE
Greek
Υ upsilon
“The letter upsilon, historically related to the U/V/W letter family.”
Old English, 8th–11th centuries
Old English
ƿ wynn
“A separate runic-derived letter used for the /w/ sound, shaped like a modified P.”
11th–13th centuries
Medieval Latin and English
uu
“Two U-shaped letters written together to represent the /w/ sound, replacing wynn in many manuscripts.”
Modern English
English
W
“The letter now named “double u,” despite its printed form often resembling two joined V shapes.”