Etymology

big O notation

Today it means: A particular notation, useful in the analysis of algorithms, which describes the limiting behavior of a function when the argument tends towards a particular value or infinity, usually in terms of simpler functions. Full definition →

German Ordnung
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The story

  1. German · derived fromOrdnung
  2. English todaybig O notation

From the capital letter O (short for order, originally German Ordnung) used in the notation.

Words from the same roots

GermanOrdnung all →

Ordnung

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.