The twenty-second letter of the English alphabet, which had no written counterpart in North Semitic or Greek. The "V" as we know it was developed by the Etruscans, who used it to represent the "U" sound, as did the Romans. (There is no "V" sound in Latin; so Caesar's famous phrase "'veni, vidi, vici'" is actually pronounced "weni, widi, wici.") The form of the "V" was used interchangably with the "U" until the Middle Ages, where the "V" began to develop its own pronunciation. (See U, u.)
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