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What do the letters OUOSVAVV stand for?

Asked 26 Oct 2026 by ·5 answers·0·0 following
Most likely: they are the initials of a Latin funerary dedication to a named person, matching the D M frameAhead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

Where it stands

Five answers have been proposed. They are the initials of a Latin funerary dedication to a named person, matching the D M frame. leads, with evidence 2 for, 1 against: partly supported by its tests. Four are still possible. Of the two narrower questions under it, none is answered yet.

Why it matters

Every reading proposed can be made to fit eight letters; what separates them is grammar, epigraphic practice and fit to the Ansons' world⁠[1]⁠[2].

Answers 5

Evidence: 2 for, 1 against
Most likely
None of these.
Not tested enough to call either way
Evidence: none yet
Still possible
Evidence: 1 against
Disputed
Evidence: 1 for, 1 against
Still possible
Evidence: 1 against
Still possible

History

  1. The Daily Telegraph puts forward: they are a later addition naming local places and families (Morton).
  2. Mitchell puts forward: they are the initials of a Latin funerary dedication to a named person, matching the D M frame.
  3. Mitchell: stonor's widower reading is ungrammatical and fits no Anson widower at the time.Against: They are the initials of a Latin funerary dedication to a named person, matching the D M frame.
  4. Mitchell: mitchell's Anne Venables-Vernon reading is grammatical and fits a neighbour's wife who died in 1742, but the…For: They are the initials of a Latin funerary dedication to a named person, matching the D M frame.
  5. Mitchell: massey's reading is grammatical but conflicts with the pagan D M frame and with its own Latin model.Against: They are the initials of a Latin religious sentence, such as Massey's 'Oro Ut Omnes Sequantur Viam Ad Veram…
  6. Mitchell: the letter assignments look arbitrary to critics.Against: They are a later addition naming local places and families (Morton).
  7. Mitchell: the letters are first recorded in 1817.For: They are a later addition naming local places and families (Morton).
  8. Asked on this site
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