Long s

{{short description|Archaic form of the Latin-script letter s (ſ)}} {{about|''ſ'', the archaic variant of the letter ''s''|the letter{{nbsp}}''ʃ'' as used in Latin script|Esh (letter)|the mathematical symbol{{nbsp}}''∫''|Integral symbol|the phonetic sound{{nbsp}}''ʃ''|Voiceless postalveolar fricative}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}} {{Infobox grapheme | letter = ſ | image = File:Latin letter long S.svg | imageclass = skin-invert-image | fam1 = s | script = Latin | usageperiod = 700s to 1900s }} [[File:Long-s-US-Bill-of-Rights.jpg|thumb|An italicized long ''s'' used in the word "Congress" (as "''Congreſs''") in the United States Bill of Rights]] {{Orthography notation}} The '''long s''', {{angbr|'''ſ'''}}, also known as the '''medial ''s''''' or '''initial ''s''''', is an archaic form of the lowercase letter {{angbr|s}}, found mostly in works from the late 8th to early 19th centuries. It replaced one or both{{efn|Depending on whether they appear in the end or middle of a word, respectively. Some texts starting from the late 18th century had it exclusively replace the first ''s'', however. A more detailed explanation follows below.}} of the letter ''s'' in a double-''s'' sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſſeſs" or "poſseſs" for "possess", but never "poſſeſſ").<ref name="Babelstone" /> The modern {{angbr|s}} letterform is known as the "short", "terminal", or "round" ''s''.

In typography, the long ''s'' is known as a type of swash letter, commonly referred to as a "swash ''s''".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berger |first=Sidney |title=The Dictionary of the Book: A Glossary for Book Collectors, Booksellers, Librarians, and Others |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |date=2016 |isbn=9781442263390 |pages=252, 295}}</ref> As with other letters, the long ''s'' may have a variant appearance depending on typeface: ſ, ſ, ſ, ſ. In some typefaces, this letter has a very similar appearance to the letter {{angbr|{{sans-serif|f}}}} (lowercase F), distinguished only by the width of the crossbar.

The long ''s'' is the basis of the first half of the German ligature {{angbr|ß}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cheng |first=Karen |title=Designing Type |publisher=Laurence King Publishing |date=2006 |isbn=9781856694452 |page=212}}</ref> ({{lang|de|Eszett}} or {{lang|de|scharfes s}}, {{gloss|sharp ''s''}}) and of the Middle Scots {{angbr|Ꟗ ꟗ}}.<ref>{{citation |last=Everson |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Everson |url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20267-n5144-middle-scots-s.pdf |title=L2/20-267: Revised proposal to add two characters for Middle Scots to the UCS |date=2020-10-01 |publisher=Unicode Consortium}}</ref>

== Rules == === English === This list of rules for the long ''s'' is not exhaustive, and it applies only to books printed during the 17th to early 19th centuries in English-speaking countries.<ref name="Babelstone">{{Cite web |last=West |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew West (linguist) |date=June 2006 |title=The Rules for Long S |url= https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2006/06/rules-for-long-s.html |website=Babelstone |type=blog |access-date=26 November 2019 |archive-date=1 August 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200801025335/https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2006/06/rules-for-long-s.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Similar rules exist for other European languages.<ref name="Babelstone" />

Long ''s'' was always used (''ſong'', ''ſubſtitute''), except: * Upper-case letters are always the round ''S''; there is no upper-case long ''s''. * A round ''s'' was always used at the end of a word ending with {{angbr|s}}: ''his'', ''complains'', ''ſucceſs'' ** However, long ''s'' was maintained in abbreviations such as ''ſ.'' for ''ſubſtantive'' (substantive), and ''Geneſ.'' for ''Geneſis'' (Genesis). * Before an apostrophe (indicating an omitted letter), a round ''s'' was used: ''us'd'' and ''clos'd''. * Before or after an ''f'', a round ''s'' was used: ''offset'', ''ſatisfaction''. * In the 17th and early 18th centuries, the round ''s'' was used before ''k'' and ''b'': ''ask'', ''husband'', ''{{notatypo|Ailesbury}}'', ''Salisbury'', ''{{notatypo|Shaftsbury}}'';<ref>{{cite book |title=The Earl of Shaftsbury's Case Upon the Habeas Corpus Act |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=DQcy2h5cqrkC&pg=PA1 |author=Anthony Ashley Cooper Earl of Shaftesbury |date=1705 |publisher=printed, for G. Sawbridge}}</ref> in the late 18th century, the long ''s'' was used instead: ''aſk'', ''huſband'', ''Aileſbury'', ''Saliſbury,'' ''Shaftſbury''.{{cn|date=March 2026}} ** These two exceptions applied only if the letters were physically adjacent on the page, and long ''s'' was used if the two were separated by a hyphen and line break, e.g., ''off-ſet'', ''Saliſ-bury''. * There were no special exceptions for a double ''s''. The first ''s'' was always long, while the second was long in mid-word (e.g., ''poſſeſſion''), or short when at the end of a word (e.g., ''poſſeſs''). See, for example, the word ''Bleſſings'' in the Preamble to the United States Constitution. ** This usage was not universal, and a long followed by a short ''s'' is sometimes seen even mid-word (e.g., ''Miſsiſsippi'').<ref name="lowemap">Lowe's 1800 map of the USA</ref> * Round ''s'' was used at the end of each word in a hyphenated compound word: ''croſs-piece''. * In the case of a ''triple s'', such words were normally hyphenated with a round ''s'', e.g., ''croſs-ſtitch'', but a round ''s'' was used even if the hyphen was omitted: ''croſsſtitch''.

In handwriting, these rules did not apply—the long ''s'' was usually confined to preceding a round ''s'', either in the middle or at the end of a word—for example, ''aſsure'', ''bleſsings''.<ref name="Babelstone" />

=== German === [[File:Fraktur-Zwangsligaturen.svg|thumb|The ligature {{angbr|ﬅ}}, like {{angbr|ch, ck, ꜩ}}, is immune to spaced typesetting. However, it is usually uncoupled as a ligature,{{cn|date=February 2026}} unlike the others. A different case is ''eszett'' ({{angbr|ß}}, originally {{angbr|ſʒ}}) as it is usually considered a single letter nowadays.]] The general idea is that round s indicates the end of a semantic part. Thus, long ſ is used everywhere except at the end of a syllable, where further conditions need to be true.

The following rules were laid down at the German Orthographic Conference of 1901.

The round s is used: * at the end of (non-abbreviated) words: e.g., {{lang|de|da'''s''' Hau'''s''', der Kosmo'''s''', de'''s''' Bunde'''s''', Pil'''s'''}} (however: {{lang|de|im Hau'''ſ'''e, die Häu'''ſ'''er, Pil'''ſ'''ener}}) * at the end of prefixes, as a connecting s and in compounds at the end of the first part-word, even if the following part-word begins with a long ſ: e.g., {{lang|de|Liebe'''s'''brief, Arbeit'''s'''amt, Donner'''s'''tag, Unterſuchung'''s'''ergebnis, Hau'''s'''tür, Di'''s'''poſition, di'''s'''harmoniſch, da'''s'''ſelbe, Wirt'''s'''ſtube, Au'''s'''ſicht}} * in derivations with word formation suffixes that begin with a consonant, such as {{lang|de|-tum, -heit, -keit, -lein, -chen, -bar, -lich, -haft,}} etc. (not before inflectional endings with ''t'' and possibly schwa [{{IPAlink|ə}}]): e.g., {{lang|de|Wach'''s'''tum, Wei'''s'''heit, Häu'''s'''lein, Mäu'''s'''chen, Bi'''s'''tum, nachwei'''s'''bar, wohlwei'''s'''lich, bo'''s'''haft}} (however: {{lang|de|er rei'''ſ'''te, das ſech'''ſ'''te,}} cf. below ''ſt'') * at the end of a syllable, even if the syllable is not the end of a (part-)word, common in names and proper nouns: e.g., {{lang|de|ko'''s'''miſch, brü'''s'''kieren, Reali'''s'''mus, le'''s'''biſch, Me'''s'''ner; O'''s'''wald, Dre'''s'''den, Schle'''s'''wig, O'''s'''nabrück}} Many exceptions apply.

Long ſ is used whenever round s is not used (for s): * at the beginning of a syllable, i.e. anywhere before the vowel in the center of a syllable: e.g., {{lang|de|'''ſ'''au'''ſ'''en, ein'''ſ'''pielen, aus'''ſ'''pielen, er'''ſ'''taunen, '''ſ'''kandalös, P'''ſ'''yche, Mi'''ſ'''anthrop}} (for syllables: {{lang|de|Mi⋅ſan⋅throp}}; alternative variant: {{lang|de|Mis⋅an⋅throp}}) The same applies for the beginning of a syllable of a suffix like ''-ſel, -ſal, -ſam,'' etc.: e.g., {{lang|de|Rät'''ſ'''el, Lab'''ſ'''al, ſelt'''ſ'''am}} * in ''ſp'' and ''ſt'' (since 1901 also ''ſz''), unless they arise by happenstance (via a connecting s or composition); that includes flexion suffixes starting with ''t'': e.g., {{lang|de|We'''ſp'''e, Kno'''ſp'''e, fa'''ſt'''en, fa'''ſz'''inierend, O'''ſz'''illograph, A'''ſt''', Ha'''ſt''', Lu'''ſt''', ein'''ſt''', du ſteh'''ſt''', mei'''ſt'''ens, be'''ſt'''e, knu'''ſp'''ern; er rei'''ſt''', du lie'''ſt''', es paſ'''ſt'''e}} (modern orthography; traditionally: {{lang|de|paßte}}), {{lang|de|ſech'''ſt'''e, G'''ſt'''aad}} * in multigraphs that represent a single sound such as ''ſch'' (to represent {{IPAc-en|ʃ}}, but not {{IPAc-en|s|x}}) and English ''ſh'' and doubled consonants ''ſſ'' and ''ſs:'' e.g., {{lang|de|Bu'''ſch''', E'''ſch'''e, Wun'''ſch''', wün'''ſch'''en, Fla'''ſh''', Wa'''ſſ'''er, Bi'''ſſ'''en, Zeugni'''ſſ'''e, Fa'''ſs'''}} (modern orthography; traditionally: {{lang|de|Faß}}), however: {{lang|de|E'''s'''chatologie}} Also applies to double s through assimilation: e.g., {{lang|de|a'''ſſ'''imiliert, A'''ſſ'''onanz}} * before ''l, n,'' and ''r'' if an ''e'' is omitted: e.g., {{lang|de|un'''ſr'''e, Pil'''ſn'''er, Wech'''ſl'''er}} however: {{lang|de|Zuchthäu'''s'''ler, O'''s'''lo, O'''s'''nabrück}} * before an apostrophe and other forms of abbreviation: e.g., {{lang|de|ich la'''ſſ’''' es}} (casual for {{lang|de|ich laſſe es}}), {{lang|de|ſ.}} (common abbreviation for {{lang|de|ſiehe}}) * when the initial ſ of a word is merged with and has priority over the terminal s of a prefix: e.g., in {{lang|de|tran'''ſ'''zendent, tran'''ſ'''zendieren,}} etc.; in this case, the initial ſ of ''ſzend'' (from Latin {{lang|la|ſcando}}) is merged with the terminal s of the ''{{lang|de|trans-}}'' prefix due to ''z'' following the ſ.

These rules do not cover all cases and in some corner cases, multiple variants can be found. One such case is whether to apply original semantics (that are largely unknown) or follow spoken syllables; e.g., in {{lang|de|Asbest}} vs. {{lang|de|Aſbest}} as it is spoken ''As⋅best'', but comes from Ancient Greek {{lang|grc|ἄσβεστος}} composed of {{lang|grc|ᾰ̓-}} plus {{lang|grc|σβέννῡμῐ}}, meaning ''a'' is a prefix, and thus, a long ſ follows.

In Fraktur, the ligature ſt (Unicode: {{unichar|FB05|LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T}}) is not spaced in spaced setting, as with other ligatures.

==History== {{more citations needed|section|date=October 2019}} The long ''s'' was derived from the old Roman cursive medial ''s'', {{angbr|12px|alt=Medial s in old Roman script}}.<ref>Yule, John-David. ''Concise Encyclopedia of Science and Technology''. Crescent Books (1978) {{ISBN|9780517486108}} p. 490</ref> When the distinction between majuscule (uppercase) and minuscule (lowercase) letter forms became established, toward the end of the eighth century, it developed a more vertical form.<ref name="A Ox">{{Citation |last=Davies |first=Lyn |title=A is for Ox |date=2006 |location=London |publisher=Folio Society}}.</ref> During this period, it was occasionally used at the end of a word, a practice that quickly died but that was occasionally revived in Italian printing between about 1465 and 1480. Thus, the general rule that the long ''s'' never occurred at the end of a word is not strictly correct, although the exceptions are rare and archaic. The double ''s'' in the middle of a word was also written with a long ''s'' and a short ''s'', as in: "Miſsiſsippi".<ref name="lowemap" /> In German typography, the rules are more complicated: short ''s'' also appears at the end of each component within a compound word, and there are more detailed rules and practices for special cases.

=== Similarity to letter ''f'' === {{more citations|section|date=March 2026}} [[File:secret foe.png|thumb |Two words "ſecret foe" (''secret foe'') extracted from the 1667 printing of the poem ''Paradise Lost'' (Book{{nbsp}}IV page{{nbsp}}1), enabling comparison of long ''s'' and ''f'']] Modern readers often confuse the long ''s'' with the letter {{angbr|{{sans-serif|f}}}} (minuscule form of {{angbr|F}}) as, in some roman and blackletter typefaces, it has an ''f''-like nub at its middle but only on the left side. There was usually no nub in the italic type form of long s, which gave the stroke a descender that curled to the left.

The nub acquired its form in the blackletter style of writing. What looks like one stroke was actually a wedge pointing downward. The wedge's widest part was at that height (x-height) and capped by a second stroke that formed an ascender that curled to the right. Those styles of writing, and their derivatives in type design, had a crossbar at the height of the nub for letters ''f'' and ''t'', as well as for ''k''.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

=== Ligatures === [[File:Berlin dworzec Nordbahnhof 2.jpg |thumb|Direction sign to Bernauer Straße, with long ''s'' and with {{angbr|ß}} written as a {{angbr|ſ<math>\mathfrak{z}</math>}} ligature ]] The long ''s'' was used in ligatures in various languages. Four examples were {{angbr|si}}, {{angbr|ss}}, {{angbr|st}}, and the German letter {{lang|de|Eszett}} {{angbr|ß}}.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Long S-I Garamond sort 001.png|thumb|upright|A ligature of ſi on movable type]]

The present-day German letter ''ß'' ({{langx|de|Eszett}} or {{lang|de|scharfes s}}; also used in Low German and historical Upper Sorbian orthographies) is generally considered to have originated in a (Fraktur) ligature of {{angbr|ſz}} (which is supported by the fact that the second part of the {{angbr|ß}} grapheme usually resembles a Fraktur ''z'': {{angbr|<math>\mathfrak{z}</math>}}, hence {{angbr|ſ<math>\mathfrak{z}</math>}}{{crossref|; see ''ß'' for details}}), although in Antiqua, the ligature of {{angbr|ſs}} is used instead. An alternative hypothesis claims that the German letter ''ß'' originated in Tironian notes.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bollwage |first=Max |contribution=Ist das Eszett ein lateinischer Gastarbeiter? |title=Gutenberg-Jahrbuch |trans-title=Gutenberg Yearbook |pages=35–41 |date=1999 |publisher=Gutenberg-Gesellschaft |language=de |isbn=978-3-7755-1999-1}} Cited and discussed in: {{cite journal |last=Stötzner |first=Uta |title=Die Geschichte des versalen Eszetts |language=de |journal=Signa |volume=9 |pages=21–22 |publisher=Grimma |date=2006 |isbn=978-3-933629-17-3}}</ref>

=== ''ſ'' and ''s'' as distinct letters === Some old orthographic systems of Slavonic and Baltic languages used {{angbr|ſ}} and {{angbr|s}} as two separate letters with different phonetic values. For example, the Bohorič alphabet of the Slovene language included {{angbr|ſ}} {{IPA|/s/}}, {{angbr|s}} {{IPA|/z/}}, {{angbr|ſh}} {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, {{angbr|sh}} {{IPA|/ʒ/}}. In the original version of the alphabet, majuscule {{angbr|S}} was shared by both letters.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

===Decline=== [[File:Historical_usage_of_long_s.svg|thumb|Incidence of the word-forms "laft" {{sic}} and "last" in English documents from 1700 to 1900, according to Google's web n-grams database. Based on OCR scans of books, which can misidentify the long ''s'' as ''f''.<ref>{{cite book |title=Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries |last1=Kapidakis |first1=Sarantos |last2=Mazurek |first2=Cezary |last3=Werla |first3=Marcin |date=2015 |pages=257–260 |publisher=Springer |isbn=9783319245928 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=kEyGCgAAQBAJ |access-date=20 July 2023 |archive-date=20 July 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230720220157/https://books.google.com/books?id=kEyGCgAAQBAJ |url-status=live}}</ref>]]

In general, the long ''s'' fell out of use in roman and italic typefaces in professional printing well before the middle of the 19th century. It rarely appears in good-quality London printing after 1800, though it lingers provincially until 1824 and is found in handwriting into the second half of the nineteenth century,<ref name="Attar">{{Cite book |last=Attar |first=Karen |title=Oxford Companion to the Book |date=2010 |isbn=9780198606536 |editor-last=Michael Felix Suarez |volume=II |page=1116 |chapter=S and Long S |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-last2=H. R. Woudhuysen}}.</ref> and is sometimes seen later on in archaic or traditionalist printing such as printed collections of sermons. Woodhouse's ''The Principles of Analytical Calculation'', published by the Cambridge University Press in 1803, uses the long ''s'' throughout its roman text.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodhouse |first=Robert |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=rEbnAAAAMAAJ |title=The principles of analytical calculation |date=1 January 1803 |publisher=Printed at the University press}}</ref>

====Abandonment by printers and type founders==== [[File:5th6thEdition.jpeg|thumb|Fifth edition of ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 1817, top, compared to the sixth edition of 1823; the only change (aside from the elimination of the {{angbr|ct}} ligature, as in "attraction") was the removal of the long ''s'' from the typeface.]]

The long ''s'' disappeared from new typefaces rapidly in the mid-1790s, and most printers who could afford to do so had discarded older typefaces by the early years of the 19th century. Pioneer of type design John Bell (1746–1831), who started the British Letter Foundry in 1788, is often "credited with the demise of the long ''s''".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bell |first=John |title=Oxford Companion to the Book |date=2010 |isbn=9780198606536 |editor-last=Michael Felix Suarez |volume=I |page=516 |publisher=Oxford University Press |editor-last2=H. R. Woudhuysen}}</ref> Paul W. Nash concluded that the change mostly happened very fast in 1800, and believes that this was triggered by the Seditious Societies Act. To discourage subversive publications, this required printing to name the identity of the printer, and so in Nash's view gave printers an incentive to make their work look more modern.<ref name="Nash">{{cite journal |last1=Nash |first1=Paul W. |title=The abandoning of the long ''s'' in Britain in 1800 |journal=Journal of the Printing Historical Society |date=2001 |url= https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:30563/ |access-date=28 May 2023 |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230528015435/https://hcommons.org/deposits/item/hc:30563/ |url-status=live}} Noted in {{cite journal |last1=Morgan |first1=Paul |title=The Use of the Long 's' in Britain: a Note |journal=Quadrat |date=2002 |issue=15 |url= https://www.cphc.org.uk/quadrat-archive |pages=23–28 |access-date=28 May 2023 |archive-date=28 May 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230528015511/https://www.cphc.org.uk/quadrat-archive |url-status=live}}</ref>

Unlike the 1755 edition, which uses the long ''s'' throughout,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=John |url= https://archive.org/details/printersgrammar00smitgoog/page/n10/mode/1up |title=The printer's grammar: containing a concise history of the origin of printing; |date=1755 |location=London}}</ref> the 1808 edition of the ''Printer's Grammar'' describes the transition away from the use of the long ''s'' among type founders and printers in its list of available sorts:

{{blockquote|The introduction of the round ''s'', instead of the long, is an improvement in the art of printing equal, if not superior, to any which has taken place in recent years, and for which we are indebted to the ingenious Mr. Bell, who introduced them in his edition of the British Classics [published in the 1780s and 1790s]. They are now generally adopted, and the [type founders] scarcely ever cast a long ''s'' to their fonts, unless particularly ordered. Indeed, they omit it altogether in their specimens ... They are placed in our list of sorts, not to recommend them, but because we may not be subject to blame from those of the old school, who are tenacious of deviating from custom, however antiquated, for giving a list which they might term imperfect.|source= Caleb Stower, ''The Printer's Grammar'' (1808).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stower |first=Caleb |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sfZOygEACAAJ |title=The Printer's Grammar; Or Introduction to the Art of Printing: Containing a Concise History of the Art, with the Improvements in the Practice of Printing, for the Last Fifty Years |date=1808 |page=53 |access-date=22 March 2023 |archive-date=26 March 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230326164822/https://books.google.com/books?id=sfZOygEACAAJ |url-status=live}}</ref> }}

An individual instance of an important work using ''s'' instead of the long ''s'' occurred in 1749, with Joseph Ames's ''Typographical Antiquities'', about printing in England 1471–1600, but "the general abolition of long ''s'' began with John Bell's British Theatre (1791)".<ref name="Attar" />{{efn|For fuller information, Attar cites: {{cite journal |last=Nash |first=Paul W. |date=2001 |title=The Abandoning of the Long 's' in Britain in 1800 |journal=Journal of the Printing Historical Society |pages=3–19 |number=3}} }}

In Spain, the change was accomplished mainly between the years 1760 and 1766;<ref name="Nash" /> for example, the multivolume {{lang|es|España Sagrada}} made the switch with volume 16 (1762). In France, the change occurred between 1782 and 1793: François Didot designed Didone to be used substantially without long ''s''.<ref name="Nash" /> The change happened in Italy at about the same time: Giambattista Bodoni also designed his Bodoni typeface without long ''s''.<ref name="Nash" /> Printers in the United States stopped using the long ''s'' between 1795 and 1810: for example, acts of Congress were published with the long ''s'' throughout 1803, switching to the short ''s'' in 1804. In the US, a late use of the long ''s'' was in ''Low's Encyclopaedia'', which was published between 1805 and 1811. Its reprint in 1816 was one of the last such uses recorded in the US. The most recent recorded use of the long ''s'' typeset among English printed Bibles can be found in the Lunenburg, Massachusetts, 1826 printing by W. Greenough and Son. The same typeset was used for the 1826 printed later by W. Greenough and Son, and the statutes of the United Kingdom's colony Nova Scotia also used the long ''s'' as late as 1816. Some examples of the use of the long and short ''s'' among specific well-known typefaces and publications in the UK include the following: * The Caslon typeface of 1732 has the long ''s''.<ref name="Gaskell Bibliography 210">Philip Gaskell, ''New Introduction to Bibliography'', Clarendon, 1972, p. 210, Figs 74, 75.</ref> * The Caslon typeface of 1796 has the short ''s'' only.<ref name="Gaskell Bibliography 210" /> * In the UK, ''The Times'' of London made the switch from the long to the short ''s'' with its issue of 10 September 1803. * The Catherwood typeface of 1810 has the short ''s'' only.<ref name="Gaskell Bibliography 210" /> * ''Encyclopædia Britannica''{{'s}} 5th edition, completed in 1817, was the last edition to use the long ''s''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |date=1817 |edition=5th}}.</ref> The 1823 6th edition uses the short ''s''. * The Caslon typeface of 1841 has the short ''s'' only.<ref name="Gaskell Bibliography 210" /> * Two typefaces from Stephenson Blake, both 1838–1841, have the short ''s'' only.<ref name="Gaskell Bibliography 210" />

When the War of 1812 began, the contrast between the non-use of the long ''s'' by the United States, and its continued use by the United Kingdom, is illustrated by the Twelfth US Congress's use of the short ''s'' of today in the US declaration of war against the United Kingdom, and, in contrast, the continued use of long ''s'' within the text of Isaac Brock's counterpart document responding to the declaration of war by the US.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

Early editions of Scottish poet Robert Burns that have lost their title page can be dated by their use of the long ''s''; that is, James Currie's edition of the ''Works of Robert Burns'' (Liverpool, 1800 and many reprintings) does not use the long ''s'', while editions from the 1780s and early 1790s do.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In printing, instances of the long ''s'' continue in rare and sometimes notable cases in the UK until the end of the 19th century, possibly as part of a consciously antiquarian revival of old-fashioned type. For example: * The Chiswick Press reprinted the Wyclyffite New Testament in 1848 in the Caslon typeface,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wells |first=John Edwin |title=A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050–1500 |publisher=Modern Language Association of America |date=1970 |page=548}}.</ref> using the long ''s''; Chiswick Press, run by Charles Whittingham II (nephew of Charles Whittingham) from c. 1832–1870s, reprinted classics like Geoffrey Chaucer's ''The Canterbury Tales'' in a typeface of Caslon that included the long ''s''. * The "antiqued" first edition of Thackeray's ''The History of Henry Esmond'' (1852), a historical novel set in the eighteenth century, prints long ''s'', and not just when doubled as in "mistreſs's".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daniel Hack |title=The Material Interests of the Victorian Novel |publisher=University of Virginia Press |date=2005 |series=Victorian Literature and Culture series |page=12}} Figure 1 prints a facsimile of a sample page.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=J. A. Sutherland |date=2013 |title=Henry Esmond: The Virtues of Carelessness |journal=Thackeray at Work |type=reprint |series=Bloomsbury Academic Collections: English Literary Criticism: 18th–19th Centuries |location=London and New York |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=56–73 |doi=10.5040/9781472554260.ch-003}}</ref><ref name="Recasting Caslon Old Face">{{Cite web |last=Mosley |first=James |author-link=James Mosley |title=Recasting Caslon Old Face |url= http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/recasting-caslon-old-face.html |access-date=1 August 2015 |website=Type Foundry |archive-date=29 June 2015 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150629150919/http://typefoundry.blogspot.co.uk/2009/01/recasting-caslon-old-face.html |url-status=live}}</ref> * Mary Elizabeth Coleridge's first volume of poetry, ''Fancy's Following'', published in 1896, was printed with the long ''s''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Coleridge |first=Mary |title=Fancy's Following |publisher=Daniel Press |date=1896 |location=Oxford}}</ref> * Collections of sermons were published using the long ''s'' until the end of the 19th century.{{Citation needed|date=September 2016}}

In Germany, Fraktur-family typefaces (such as Tannenberg, used by the Deutsche Reichsbahn for station signage, as illustrated above) continued in widespread official use after private use had already largely ceased, until the "Normal Type" decree of 1941 required that they be phased out. The long ''s'' survives in Fraktur typefaces.

====Eventual abandonment in handwriting==== [[File:Schwäbische Bastarda 1496 Schriftprobe Priesters Tochter.png|thumb|German handwriting (Bastarda), 1496, showing long and round ''s'' (as well as an r rotunda) in "priesters"]] [[File:Example of handwritten ſ in a letter from Charlotte Brontë.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|right|"Miss Austen's"—an example of a handwritten long ''s'' in a letter from Charlotte Brontë to G. H. Lewes, 12 January 1848]] After its decline and disappearance in printing in the early years of the 19th century, the long ''s'' persisted into the second half of the century in manuscript. In handwriting used for correspondence and diaries, its use for a single ''s'' seems to have disappeared first: most manuscript examples from the 19th century use it for the first ''s'' in a double ''s''. For example, * Charlotte Brontë used the long ''s'', as the first in a double ''s'', in some of her letters, e.g., "Miſs Austen" in a letter to the critic G. H. Lewes, 12 January 1848; in other letters, however, she uses the short ''s'', for example in an 1849 letter to Patrick Brontë, her father.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=2000 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Margaret |volume=Two (1848–1851) |location=Oxford |pages=406 and 407}}.</ref> Her husband Arthur Bell Nicholls used the long ''s'' in writing to Ellen Nussey of Brontë's death.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Letters of Charlotte Brontë: With a Selection of Letters by Family and Friends |publisher=Clarendon Press |date=2004 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Margaret |volume=Three (1852–1855) |location=Oxford |page=opposite 217}}.</ref> * Edward Lear regularly used the long ''s'' in his diaries in the second half of the 19th century; for example, his 1884 diary has an instance in which the first ''s'' in a double ''s'' is long: "Addreſsed".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Edward Lear |url= http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu//oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou01884 |title=Edward Lear Diaries, 1858–1888 |publisher=MS Eng 797.3 (27) |location=Houghton Library, Harvard |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20140222215437/http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu//oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=hou01884 |archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref> * Wilkie Collins routinely used the long ''s'' for the first in a double ''s'' in his manuscript correspondence; for example, he used the long ''s'' in the words "mſs" (manuscripts) and "needleſs" in a 1 June 1886 letter to Daniel S. Ford.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Collins |first=Wilkie |url= http://www.paullewis.co.uk/wilkie/Letters/18860601Ford.htm |title=The Wilkie Collins Pages: Wilkie's Letters |editor-last=Paul Lewis |chapter=To Daniel S. Ford |access-date=7 February 2014 |archive-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200815065629/http://www.paullewis.co.uk/wilkie/Letters/18860601Ford.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

For these as well as others, the handwritten long ''s'' may have suggested type and a certain formality as well as the traditional. Margaret Mathewson "published" her ''Sketch of 8 Months a Patient in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, A.D. 1877'' of her experiences as a patient of Joseph Lister in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh by writing copies out in manuscript.{{efn|The still-unpublished manuscript of this ''Sketch'' is held by the Shetland Museum and Archives.}} In place of the first ''s'' in a double ''s'', Mathewson recreated the long ''s'' in these copies, a practice widely used for both personal and business correspondence by her family, who lived on the remote island of Yell, Shetland. The practice of using the long ''s'' in handwriting on Yell, as elsewhere, may have been a carryover from 18th-century printing conventions, but it was not unfamiliar as a convention in handwriting.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

==Modern usage== [[File:CycleDesign Kopie.jpg|thumb|A sign bar for a shop in Berlin (2002), written in a Fraktur typeface]] The long ''s'' survives in elongated form, with an italic-styled curled descender, as the integral symbol ({{char|∫}}) used in calculus. Gottfried Leibniz based the character on the Latin {{lang|la|summa}} ('sum'), which he wrote ''ſumma''. This use first appeared publicly in his paper ''De Geometria'', published in ''Acta Eruditorum'' of June 1686,<ref>{{cite journal |last=Swetz |first=Frank J. |title=Mathematical Treasure: Leibniz's Papers on Calculus – Integral Calculus |url= http://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-leibnizs-papers-on-calculus-integral-calculus |journal=Convergence |publisher=Mathematical Association of America |access-date=11 February 2017 |archive-date=27 December 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161227072212/http://www.maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-leibnizs-papers-on-calculus-integral-calculus |url-status=live}}</ref> but he had been using it in private manuscripts at least since 29 October 1675.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Leibniz |first=G. W. |url= http://www.gwlb.de/Leibniz/Leibnizarchiv/Veroeffentlichungen/VII5A.pdf |title=Sämtliche Schriften und Briefe, Reihe VII: Mathematische Schriften |publisher=Akademie Verlag |date=2008 |volume=5: Infinitesimalmathematik 1674–1676 |location=Berlin |pages=288–295 |chapter=Analyseos tetragonisticae pars secunda |orig-date=29 October 1675 |access-date=26 October 2019 |archive-date=9 October 2021 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20211009052830/https://www.gwlb.de/Leibniz/Leibnizarchiv/Veroeffentlichungen/VII5A.pdf |url-status=dead}}</ref> The integral of a function {{math|''f'' ({{var|x}})}} with respect to a real variable {{math|{{var|x}}}} over the interval {{math|[{{var|a}}, {{var|b}}]}} is typeset as:

In linguistics, a similar character ({{IPA|ʃ}}, called ''esh'') is used in the International Phonetic Alphabet, in which it represents the voiceless postalveolar fricative, the first sound in the English word ''ship''.<ref>[https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/IPAcharts/common_files/pdfs/pdfs_IPA_charts_E/IPA_Kiel.pdf The International Phonetic Alphabet] by the International Phonetic Association.</ref>

In Nordic and German-speaking countries, relics of the long ''s'' continue to be seen in signs and logos that use various forms of Fraktur-style typefaces. Examples include the logos of the Norwegian newspapers {{lang|no|Aftenpoſten}} and {{lang|no|Adresſeaviſen}}; the packaging logo for Finnish {{lang|fi|italic=unset|Siſu}} pastilles; and the German {{lang|de|italic=unset|Jägermeiſter}} logo.

The long ''s'' exists in some current OpenType digital fonts that are historic revivals, like Caslon, Garamond, and Bodoni.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Strizver |first=Ilene |title=Type Rules!: The Designer's Guide to Professional Typography |date=2014 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-118-45405-3 |edition=4th |location=Hoboken, New Jersey |page=34}}</ref>

Some Latin alphabets devised in the 1920s for some Caucasian languages used the {{angbr|ſ}} for some specific sounds.<ref>{{Citation |title=Proposal to encode Latin letters used in the Former Soviet Union (in Unicode) |url= http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n4162.pdf |publisher=DK UUG |access-date=22 December 2011 |archive-date=23 May 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120523211943/http://std.dkuug.dk/JTC1/SC2/WG2/docs/n4162.pdf |url-status=live}}.</ref> These orthographies were in actual use until 1938.<ref>{{cite book |last=Frings |first=Andreas |title=Sowjetische Schriftpolitik zwischen 1917 und 1941 – eine handlungstheoretische Analyse |date=2007 |publisher=F. Steiner |trans-title=Soviet scripts politics between 1917 and 1941 – an action-theoretical analysis |language=de |isbn=978-3-515-08887-9}}.</ref> Some of these developed a capital form which resembles the IPA letter {{angbr|ʕ}} {{crossref|see {{slink|Udi language|Alphabets}}}}.{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}

In the 1993 Turkmen orthography, {{angbr|ſ}} represented {{IPAslink|ʒ}}; however, it was replaced by 1999 by the letter {{angbr|ž}}. The capital form was {{angbr|£}}, which was replaced by {{angbr|Ž}}.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ercilasun |first1=Ahmet B. |title=The Acceptance of the Latin Alphabet in the Turkish World |journal=Studia Orientalia Electronica |date=1999 |volume=87 |pages=63–70 |url= https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/493087457.pdf |issn=2323-5209 |access-date=19 November 2023 |archive-date=18 November 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20231118173656/https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/493087457.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Roman Alphabet of Turkmen |url= http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_tk.htm |website=Institute of the Estonian Language |access-date=19 November 2023 |archive-date=24 August 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230824142210/http://www.eki.ee/wgrs/rom2_tk.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== In Unicode === * {{unichar|17f|Latin small letter long s}} * {{unichar|1E9B|}} * {{unichar|1E9C||nlink=ẜ}} * {{unichar|1E9D|}} * {{unichar|FB05|LATIN SMALL LIGATURE LONG S T}}

==Solidus or slash == {{see also|£sd}} An echo of the long ''s'' survives today in the form of the mark {{code|/}}, popularly known as a "slash" but formally named a solidus. The mark is an evolution of the long ''s'' which was used as the abbreviation for 'shilling' in Britain's pre-decimal currency, originally written as in 7ſ 6d, later as "7/6", meaning "seven shillings and six pence".<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |last=Fowler |first=Francis George |url= https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic00fowlrich/page/829/mode/1up |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English |entry=solidus |date=1917 |page=829 |via=archive.org |quote='''sǒ·lidus''', n. (pl. -di). (Hist.) gold coin introduced by Roman Emperor Constantine; (only in abbr. ''s.'') shilling(s), as 7s. 6d., £1 1s.; the shilling line (for ''ſ'' or long ''s'') as in 7/6. [LL use of L {{small|SOLID}}us]}} (The name ''shilling'' is derived from a Roman coin, the {{lang|la|solidus}}.)</ref>

==Gallery== {{gallery |width=75 |height=75 |File:Old Roman Cursive S.png|Medial ''s'' in old Roman script |File:Capital long S example.png|Italic capitals: long ''s'' (right) and round ''s'' |file:Latin small letter long-s long-s t ligature.svg| ''ſ{{nbsp}}ſ{{nbsp}}t'' ligature in Junicode font }} {{gallery |file:Latin letter long S (Reform form).svg|Long ''s'' with capital and lowercase as used in ''Reform'', journal of the {{lang|de|italic=unset|Allgemeiner Verein für vereinfachte Rechtschreibung}}, in the 1890s |File:Milton paradise.jpg|Title page of John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', featuring an ''ſt'' ligature and a nub on the long ''s'' |File:GASTHAUS.png|Unusual capital form of long ''s'' in Ehmcke-Antiqua typeface |File:Flurkreuz bei Hohenfurch (errichtet 1953).jpg|Wayside cross near Hohenfurch, Germany, erected 1953, showing the long ''s'' in a roman typeface |File:München Marienklause Kapelle Gedenktafel (Detail).jpg|Detail of a memorial in Munich, Germany, showing the text {{lang|de|Wasser-Aufsehers-Gattin}} ('water attendant's wife') containing a long ''s'' adjacent to an ''f'' ||''Jägermeister'' logo||Example of long ess in a letter from 1808 in the word "Miss" [Miſs]||Long and short ess on a metal type piece |Children's primer from 1813 containing long ess.jpg|A page from an edition of ''The New England Primer'' published in 1813 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, showing the alphabet with ligatures and double letters, including long ess (ſ) }}

==See also== * {{annotated link|ß|''ß'' ({{lang|de|nocat=y|Eszett}})}} * {{annotated link|Insular S|Insular ''S''}} * {{annotated link|Esh (letter)}} * {{annotated link|Integral symbol|Integral Symbol (''∫'')}} * {{annotated link|R rotunda|''R'' rotunda}} * {{annotated link|Long I|Long ''I''}} * {{annotated link| Sigma}} (Σ) similarly has two lowercase forms, ''ς'' in word-final position and ''σ'' otherwise * Cool S - stylized children's doodle of the letter S

==Notes== {{notelist}}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== {{Wiktionary|long s|ſ}} {{Commons category|Long s}} * {{cite web |last=Moore |publisher=Alice |title=A Simple Explanation of the Correct Usage of Long and Short S |url= http://imgur.com/gallery/0sVAa |via=Imgur}} * {{cite web |last=Mosley |first=James |date=Jan 2008 |title=Long s |work=Type Foundry |url= https://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2008/01/long-s.html |via=Blogspot}} * {{cite web |date=6 November 1981 |title=Why did 18th-century writers use F inftead of S? |work=The Straight Dope |department="Classics" department |access-date=19 March 2003 |archive-date=4 September 2008 |url= http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_110.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080904223603/http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_110.html |url-status=dead}} * {{cite web |last=West |first=Andrew |author-link=Andrew West (linguist) |date=June 2006 |title=The Long and the Short of the Letter S |work=Babelstone |url= https://www.babelstone.co.uk/Blog/2006/07/long-and-short-of-letter-s.html}} * {{cite web |title=The American Declaration of Independence with long s |work=Unknown.nu |url= http://www.unknown.nu/misc/declaration}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:S, long}} Category:History of the English language Category:Typography Category:Palaeographic letters Category:Latin-script letters Category:Letters with final form