When did they start calling 0 (zero) o (the letter)?

How do you read the time if it’s 7:05?

Just wondering.

I call zero, zero. Bothers me too.

@absalom Good point, that would be an exception. But, when reading a series of numbers, I believe better to use zero.

I don’t think this is done a lot except for the case @absalom mentioned.

I don’t know when they started calling zero oh, but it does make me cringe also.
@absalom it’s five after 7, or 5 minutes past 7. And what @marinelife said.

@marinelife Phone numbers I hear it a lot. I think it is a bad habit. People do it with credit card numbers, all sorts of things.

@JLeslie Yeah, especially when it’s something like a code that has letters and numbers, and they say oh when they mean zero

I have done this my entire life. I say “O” if I am talking to my self but I make sure to say “0” if I am talking to someone else.

it was inculcated with “Dial ‘O’ for Operator”

“eight-six-seven-five-three-oh-nine”

I’m okay with people using either- I now say “zero’ when repeating a string of numbers over the phone,. but I use “oh” a lot.

Zero is used as a placeholder as well as an individual value – so that’s probably where it comes into time pronunciation. It’s not seven – zero – five where zero has a specific value, but there is just nothing in the tens column.

You’ll hear it in military time as well – “o” 700 for seven AM. And years you’ll hear aught or naught. Where it represents “nothing” as opposed to a digit, that’s where we often use “o”. So where it’s a placeholder, it seems perfectly reasonable to use any pronunciation.

I think @zenvelo is probably right about the colloquial usage of “O” for “Operator.” But it really doesn’t seem incorrect to use it as long as it’s not confusing.

The figure or symbol O has been used in reference to emptiness or absence (i.e. basically our number 0) since circa 976 according to Wikipedia.

The actual letter has served the same purpose since circa 1425 according to the 0ED.

The letter has been used more broadly in reference to absence, nothingness or naught (nought) since as late as 1608 (and I’m sure much much earlier), viz. in a play entitled King Lear written by a playwright called William Shakespeare, in which the line ‘Thou art an O without a figure, I am better then thou art now, I am a foole, thou art nothing’ is spoken (I.iv.174).

@absalom – 0ED? clever. ;-)

I’ve always referred to the number 0 as zero. It’s the proper way to say it. My grandmother taught me that. I’m kind of OCD about it and correct people when they say “o” when they mean zero.

maybe they would say its five minutes past seven or 5 minutes past the hour instead of 7-zero-5; if someone didn’t already say it, I didn’t read everything.

don’t really bug me, I say o (oh) or 0 (zero) whenever I get ready to. But I see why that may be annoying to others.

In the hospital we used military time as well, you would not say zero800 for oh800, 0800. My phone # is 4044 and I say 4zero44. It depends on what’s expected, too. I’m one of the ones saying tweneleven though.

Regarding time, we use 12 o’clock (not sure the history of o’clock). When there are minutes passed the hour, I guess the o sounds normal because of the o’clock maybe?

@JLeslie “o’clock” is a contraction of “of the clock”.

People didn’t say “twelve – oh- five” or “twelve-ten” for 12:05 or 12:10 until digital clocks became common. They said “five after” or “ten after”.

@zenvelo About the time I was a child, was when digital hit the scene. I have to think about that. I usually say 5 after I think? Not sure. I think I use it interchangeably. 12 o five. Five afer 12.

To me, it’s just another contraction. Zero ==> ‘o.

Would it make you feel better if it was written like this: seven ‘o five?

Of course, maybe that’d be confusing with seven o’clock.

@robmandu Interesting point. We would not write it out like that, we would write 7:05.

@JLeslie, well, I think the telling-time example is just meant to demonstrate where “oh” is being used instead of “zero”. But the over-arching premise of the original question applies to all instances where people contract the word “zero” down to simply saying “oh”.

So… I chose to follow the example previously set, but that’s just a subset.

If you’re conveying your credit card number, to use another example, might you read 102030405 off similiar to: one ‘o two ‘o three ‘o four ‘o five… y’dig?

@robmandu Never. I would always use zero for credit cards. But, since credit cards never have letters, it is less important than say a confirmation number that has letters and numbers. But, the credit card still contributes to the habit the person is in, or reinforcing. If we say zero always, we are less likely to miscommunicate when it is important to say zero. Like using a turn signal before you turn when driving. The people who say they just use it when someone is behind them are full of shit in my opnion. No one is alert enough to always know who is around, and whether to signal or not. Just signal all of the time. Habits form.

right from the origin of the letter O.

What i have noticed until recent years is that it seems were I come from you never heard zero for 0.Not for a phone number and for an address.If someones house number 1044 i much prefer to say ten forty-four as opposed one zero four four what i want to know why you think have to say zero to make me understand i can understand zero as well as 0 im not stupid.

I use both, sometimes zero, sometimes oh, because I use voice-activated software I often need to say numbers e.g. when filling out my street address, I use zero on those occasions but, for instance, there is a phone number written on my blackboard right now and if I read it out loud I say seven oh seven for the last three digits 707.