NYSTAD, A town in the Liin of Abo-Bp?rneborg. Finland, situated on the Ciulf of Bothnia, about 40 miles southeast of Abo (Slap: B 2). It is noted for the treaty concluded here in 1721 between Sweden and Russia, by which the territory conquered by Peter I. along the Gulf of Finland 111111 the Baltic was conceded to Russia. Population, in 1897, 3928.
NYX (Lat., from Gk. vi';, night ). Tn Greek mythology, the goddess of night, called Nos by the Romans. She was the daughter of Chaos and Mother, by her brother Erebus, of Day and Light. Among her children were the Alcera., Ifypnos, Nemesis, Discord. and Thanatos, and sonic of the poets call her the mother of all things.
(--) The fifteenth letter and fourth vowel in English, and a symbol for a sound in general common to all languages. Its form is derived through the medium of Latin from the Greek, and still more remotely from the Plicenician character. In Semitic the name of the letter was actin, 'eye.' having refer ence to the form of the letter, which must orig inally have been a pictograph. This Semitic letter represented a guttural breathing, the 'On, which did not exist in Greek. The sign was adopted by the Greeks to represent different a-sounds, for the long sound of which they after wards developed the character omega (12). In post-classical times the names omicron, 'little o,' and omega, 'big o,' were given to these symbols.
See ALPHABET.
SouND. In English the letter o is used to indi cate two chief divisions of o-sound, first the close or 'long o' in old, no, etc., which is sometimes represented also by digraphs. as in sew, dough, tow; second, the open or 'short o,' which may be wide, as in hot, rot, or narrow, as in shorn. lord. The main source of the English long o is an Old English a, Germ. ci, Goth. ai, as in Eng. stone, A.S. stun, Germ. Stein, Goth. stuins; the short o is nsually a retention of a \Vest Germanic o as in gold (A.S. gold, 1;erm. Gold). As a graphic device, moreover, o is sometimes used to express a u-sound, as in who, wolf, lore, monk (A.S. munuc), etc. This spelling is really not ortho graphic, hut was due to the Anglo-Norman scribes adopting a looped a instead of u when adjoining an angular pointed letter like m, w, n, r, where the vowel could not readily be distinguished by the eve. In sonic words this has even affected the pronunciation, as in 'sovereign.' and often 'wont.' As A SYMBOL. In media'val notation as a nu meral o = 11 ; in chemistry 0 = oxygen; in logic it is the sign of the particular negative proposition ; and it is common in abbreviations, O.T. = Old Testament ; 0.11.0. = Old High Ger man, etc.