Vocative Case

[+ Avalon]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocative_case

 

I think the most famous example of the use of the Vocative Case is the expression "Et tu Brute".

 

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Modern English lacks a formal (morphological) vocative case. English commonly uses the nominative case for vocative expressions but sets them off from the rest of the sentences with pauses as interjections, rendered in writing as commas. Two common examples of vocative expressions in English are the phrases "Mr. President" and "Madam Chairwoman".

 

Some traditional texts use Jesu, the Latin vocative form of Jesus. One of the best-known examples is Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring.

 

Look up O#Particle in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Historically, and in poetic or rhetorical speech, vocative phrases in English were prefaced by the word O, as is often seen in the King James Version of the Bible: "O ye of little faith" (in Matthew 8:26). Another example is the recurrent use of the phrase "O (my) Best Beloved" by Rudyard Kipling in his Just So Stories. The use of O may be considered a form of clitic and should not be confused with the interjection Oh (The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, section 5.197). However, as the Oxford English Dictionary points out, "O" and "Oh" were originally used interchangeably. With the advent of "Oh" as a written interjection, however, "O" is the preferred modern spelling in vocative phrases.[citation needed]

 

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Interesting about the "O". I had not made the connection before. I like it!