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This term has sometimes been translated into English as 'object (little) a', but Lacan insisted that it should remain untranslated, "thus acquiring, as it were, the status of an algebraic sign."<ref>Sheridan. 1977</ref>
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From 1963 onwards, ''a'' comes increasingly to acquire connotations of the[[reallreal]], although it never loses its imaginary status; in 1973 Lacan can still say that it is imaginary.<ref>{{S20}} p.77</ref>
From this point on, ''a'' denotes the object which can never be attained, which is really the [[cause]] of [[desire]] rather than that towards which [[desire]] tends; this is why Lacan now calls it "the object-cause" of desire.
In the seminars of 1962-3 and of 1964, ''[[objet petit a]]'' is defined as the leftover, the remainder ([[Fr]]. ''reste''), the remnant left behind by the introduction of the symbolic in the real.
This is developed furhter in the seminar of 1969-70, in which Lacan elaborates his formulae of the [[four discorusesdiscourses]].
In the discourse of the master, one signifier attempts to represent the subject for all other signifiers, but inevitably a surplus is always produced; this surplus is ''objet petit a'', a surplus meaning, and a surplus enjoyment ([[Fr]]. ''plus-de-jouir'').
