The letter V may have had it's earliest forms as a sign in the Egyptian hieroglyphs as a sign that represented a supporting pole or branch. In the Semitic languages it originated in the letter waw, along with F, U, W and Y. The Greeks originated Upsilon from waw. In the early Cyrillic alphabet V is called Izhitsa, which has been used in place of the Greek Upsilon. V, U, and Y seem to be very closely related and in the middle ages V and U were used for the same sound but placed in different places in the word; for example, vpon and haue to represent upon and have. V is not commonly used in English and is worth four Scrabble points. The Roman numeral V represents five.
I have been thinking a lot about V words and what they mean in comparison to the letter and the shape and connotations of that letter. Violent, vigilant, violet, vagina, vendetta, vivacious, vivisection. I have to imagine that the letter that starts the Latin Vita, life, is by no coincidence the beginning of the word that all life springs from. This begs the question, did the letter inspire the words that follow it or have the words given meaning to the letter? In other words, what came first, the V or the Vagina? Even the shape of the letter can represent meanings of words. A violent V is a slash on the page, two harsh, strong lines. A vaginal V opens for life and love. A vivisection V is sliced by the symmetry.
It's such a powerful, decisive letter; it came, saw and conquered.
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