THE 22d letter and 17th consonant of, the English alphabet. It was anciently called U consonant. Though found on the most ancient Roman monuments of which we have any knowledge, and even in Etruscan and Samnite inscriptions, it was unknown, according to Tacitus, to the primitive alphabet of the Latins. The same character was used to represent both U and V, these letters also being frequently interchanged (see U); and when the emperor Claudius, as Suetonius relates, wished to introduce a separate sign for the sound of V, he made choice of the inverted digamma, J. In the inscriptions of the Etruscans and other primitive inhabitants of Italy, V is frequently confounded with the Aeolian digamma, F, through which it claims relationship with the Semitic van. Among the Hebrews, too, and probably also among the Phoenicians, the corresponding letter was employed both as consonant and vowel. The present form of V is derived from the Greek vpsilon (y), which is sometimes represented without the stem or vertical bar. - Besides u. this letter is interchanged with b, f, and m. The Hebrew beth sometimes had a sound approaching that of V, and the Greek beta (/3) is pronounced by the modern Greeks vita.

The Spanish and Portuguese B, too, is in many cases pronounced like V. In German V is pronounced like F. (See B, and F.) The change with m is noticed chiefly in Welsh, in which tongue Roman becomes Rofan (pronounced Rovan), while for the Latin amnis, river, the Welsh equivalent is Afon. - V as a numeral denotes 5, or with a dash over it (v), 500. On old French coins it signifies the mint of Troyes.