Comment by jfengel
1 day ago
What's with the hat on the o?
In French it's used to mark where an o was followed by an s in Latin, but that's not the case here. Icon comes from Greek word that never had an S.
Wiktionary reports an Esperanto iĉon, which means "male".
Perhaps this means something in some other language? Or is it a metal umlaut?
In words like icône in French, ô is typically used where the original Greek uses ω (omega).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumflex_in_French#Indicatio...
It’s the French spelling. Saying it’s only to indicate the disappearance of an “s” is reductive
> In French it's used to mark where an o was followed by an s in Latin
I love this.
pâté = paste
forêt = forest
fête = fest
île = isle
hâte = haste
hôpital, hospital, hospitality, ... It is nice to discover the initial links people made between words
Icônes is just how to write icones in French.
^ is used in Portuguese too.