When not capitalized, "ou" is Greek for "no". It is a component of some English words, most notably "utopia" - the literal etymological meaning of the word utopia is "no place".

When capitalized, "OU" is an acronym for many things. With the exception of the first, these are courtesy of acronymfinder.com:

An acronym for Organizational Unit, a key component of Microsoft's Active Directory Services, or ADS. This is very similar to a Domain, but there is a little bit less control and no Domain Controller is needed. Inside an OU, there can be computers, users, groups, printers, GPOs, and other OUs.

OU ("Circle-U")is an ASCII representation of the certification symbol used on food products, by The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations. More specifically, it is the symbol which indicates that the Orthodox Union is the particular Kashrut supervising authority which has certified this particular product. It is sometimes (probably incorrectly) written out as "(U)".

OU is one of many certification symbols that can be seen on products; (K) is another very common one (See: Kosher Symbols). It is important to note that these symbols are not interchangeable however. For example, Jell-O brand gelatin has the (K) certification, but is not certified by the Orthodox Union, and thus is not considered kosher for use in this congregation.

Sometimes a "D" is found next to the symbol; this indicates that the item in question contains dairy product; This, too, is an important demarcation as, in most situations and beliefs, dairy and meat cannot be consumed simultaneously, under Jewish dietary law. Furthermore, this symbol combination can actually be quite useful to non-Jewish consumers as well, who have dairy allergies or ethical issues about consuming animal products, as it is clear indication of dairy content.

Works referenced:
"Is Jell-O Kosher?", http://www.jcca.org/thisnewmonth/teacherjello.htm
"Kosher Supervision Organizations", http://www.mazornet.com/jewishcl/Kosher/kosherorgs.htm

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