is a latecomer to the alphabet,
first descended from the Semitic letter vau, which was also the
origin of the letters F, U, V and Y. The W form did not appear at all
in antiquity. Instead the Greeks used F or digamma for their W sound.
This was later changed into a consonantal U, then into the V.
Late Roman writers used the Greek omega to represent the W sound, particularly in the letter’s miniscule form. Medieval and Renaissance writers referred to W as both consonant and vowel. W didn“t come into full use until 700 AD after the Anglo-Saxon invasion, when the runic alphabet became the alphabet of Britian. Some of the cloistered Irish monks that copied Christian and other ancient texts (See How the Irish Saved Civilization) tried to incorporate the Roman alphabet into the runic, resulting in the signs thorn and wen in Old English. While the thorn became a y (as in ye olde farm), the wen was adapted by the Celts and Normans as two Us or Vs together.
