My two daughters demanded to know this. I speculated that it was artificially inserted, perhaps in the 17th-18th century, perhaps to make the word look more like populus, somewhat similar to the way the spurious ‘s’ was added to ‘island’. I later learned that the Middle English spelling was peeple or peple, which I think tends to support this hypothesis, but I don't know. The picture is further confused by the existence of the Old French form people. perhaps the ‘o’ was dropped, and then the older form was revived?

I consulted several dictionaries before posting this, including the Online Etymology Dictionary, and did not find any with a definitive answer.

Is anything specific known about the introduction of the ‘o’?

My two daughters demanded to know this. I speculated that it was artificially inserted, perhaps in the 17th-18th century, perhaps to make the word look more like populus, somewhat similar to the way the spurious ‘s’ was added to ‘island’. I later learned that the Middle English spelling was peeple or peple, which I think tends to support this hypothesis, but I don't know. The picture is further confused by the existence of the Old French form people. Perhaps the ‘o’ was dropped, and then the older form was revived?

I consulted several dictionaries before posting this, including the Online Etymology Dictionary, and did not find any with a definitive answer.

Is anything specific known about the introduction of the ‘o’?

My two daughters demanded to know this. I speculated that it was artificially inserted, perhaps in the 17th-18th century, perhaps to make the word look more like populus, somewhat similar to the way the spurious ‘s’ was added to ‘island’. I later learned that the Middle English spelling was peeple or peple, which I think tends to support this hypothesis, but I don't know. The picture is further confused by the existence of the Old French form people.

Is anything specific known about the introduction of the ‘o’?

My two daughters demanded to know this. I speculated that it was artificially inserted, perhaps in the 17th-18th century, perhaps to make the word look more like populus, somewhat similar to the way the spurious ‘s’ was added to ‘island’. I later learned that the Middle English spelling was peeple or peple, which I think tends to support this hypothesis, but I don't know. The picture is further confused by the existence of the Old French form people. perhaps the ‘o’ was dropped, and then the older form was revived?

I consulted several dictionaries before posting this, including the Online Etymology Dictionary, and did not find any with a definitive answer.

Is anything specific known about the introduction of the ‘o’?