“Omicron is the Greek for 'little o' (o mikron) as opposed to omega meaning 'great/big o'.
from Greek o mikron, literally, "small o"
The word literally means "little O" (o mikron) as opposed to "great O" (ō mega). In the system of Greek numerals, omicron has a value of 70.
Omicron used to be a short sound, and omega a long sound. This is easy to remember since Omicron literally means "small o" while omega literally means "great o." But in Modern Greek, these letters came to sound the same.
The World Health Organization began naming the variants after Greek letters to avoid public confusion and stigma.
What does omicron mean? Literally, the word means “small o”, and refers to the 15th letter in the Greek alphabet, which is in turn derived from the Phoenician letter 'ayin'. The Greek alphabet was first developed around 1000 BC and has directly or indirectly influenced all modern European alphabets.
First discovered a year ago in South Africa, the omicron variant spread across the globe at incredible speed. It has been unclear exactly how, when, and where this virus originated.
As the final letter in the Greek alphabet, omega is often used to denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit of a set, in contrast to alpha, the first letter of the Greek alphabet; see Alpha and Omega.
According to Greek mythology, Omicron was a Greek God who was unhappy when people lived in peace, working harmoniously together to maximize their collective well-being and happiness.
When comparing the two variants, the study found that Omicron cases resulted in 53% less risk of hospitalization, 74% less risk of ICU admission, and 91% less risk of death. The study also found that none of the patients with Omicron required mechanical ventilation.
5 cause more severe illness than other strains of COVID-19? Omicron BA. 5 is more likely to cause less severe illness compared to other variants. The majority of breakthrough infections (people who have been vaccinated or previously had COVID) are not resulting in severe illness.
The upper-case letter of omicron (O) was originally used in mathematics as a symbol for Big O notation (representing a function's asymptotic growth rate), but has fallen out of favor because omicron is indistinguishable from the Latin letter O and easily confused with the digit zero (0).
Aramaic is best known as the language Jesus spoke. It is a Semitic language originating in the middle Euphrates. In 800-600 BC it spread from there to Syria and Mesopotamia. The oldest preserved inscriptions are from this period and written in Old Aramaic.
Delta is the initial letter of the Greek word διαφορά diaphorá, "difference". (The small Latin letter d is used in much the same way for the notation of derivatives and differentials, which also describe change by infinitesimal amounts.)
This phrase is interpreted by many Christians to mean that Jesus has existed for all eternity or that God is eternal. Many commentators and dictionaries ascribe the title "the alpha and the omega" to both God and to Christ.
Omicron came from the Phoenician letter o ayin, whose name is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʿayn – meaning “eye” – the letter's shape of a circle or oval, clearly representing an eye, is suggested to be ultimately derived from the Egyptian ı͗r hieroglyph.
So Omicron is the latest variant of concern, and we have increasing information that Omicron is less severe than Delta, but it is still a dangerous virus. People who are infected with Omicron have the full spectrum of disease, everything from asymptomatic infection all the way through severe disease and death.
Delta (B. 1.617. 2) was first identified in India in late 2020; it soon spread throughout the world, becoming what was the predominant version of the coronavirus—until Omicron took its place in mid-December.
Another curious feature of Omicron is that, from a genomic viewpoint, it consists of three distinct sublineages (called BA. 1, BA. 2 and BA. 3) that all seem to have emerged at around the same time — two of which have taken off globally.
Compared to the original strain identified in Wuhan, Omicron features 50 genetic mutations, with 15 mutations in the receptor-binding domain (RBD) of the spike protein, which binds to the human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor for viral entry.
Greek Symbol for Life: Tau
Tau is a Greek symbol that means life, which looks like a modern-day T in the English alphabet. It is the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet. The eighth letter of the alphabet, theta, is a symbol of death.
Initial reports show that receiving a booster dose of a COVID-19 vaccine greatly helps prevent the likelihood of infection with the omicron variant, as well as reduce the severity of illness if you do get sick. However, vaccinated people can still get infected.
BMJ: “Covid-19: Runny nose, headache, and fatigue are commonest symptoms of omicron, early data show.”
The researchers found that people who got sick with any pre-Omicron version of the coronavirus, though, had substantially reduced protection against infection from the BA. 1 subvariant of Omicron: only 36% at 10 months after infection.