{"id":4526,"date":"2024-01-31T10:54:04","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T15:54:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/thepreservationlab\/?p=4526"},"modified":"2024-02-05T11:54:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T16:54:07","slug":"what-say-you-a-brief-look-at-the-long-s-and-its-usage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/thepreservationlab\/2024\/01\/what-say-you-a-brief-look-at-the-long-s-and-its-usage","title":{"rendered":"What \u017fay you! A brief look at the \u201clong s\u201d and its usage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Introduction To The Long S<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I was recently building an enclosure for a book dating back to 1681 entitled The Experienced Farrier.<\/i> While examining this item I noticed something interesting about the spelling of certain words: often, rather than seeing what normally should be the letter \u201cs\u201d I would see what appeared to be the letter \u201cf.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"What
Figure 1: An image from The Experienced Farrier, containing what appears to be “strange” spellings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Since noticing this, I started seeing these seemingly bizarre spellings in other items dating to this period, as can be seen in the title page from a copy of Don Quixote <\/em>from 1678.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"What
Figure 2: An image of the text from Don Quixote, with further examples of these “strange” spellings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Identifying The Long S<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After some sleuthing, I discovered something interesting: these letters were not \u201cf\u201ds at all. They were a now defunct character known as the \u201clong s.\u201d Closer examination of these letters in the text showed that, although they closely resembled an \u201cf,\u201d the horizontal cross bar did not extend all the way across the letter; it starts on the left side and ends in the middle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"What
Figure 3: A close-up of the word “most” that uses the “long s.” Note that the horizontal cross bar stops at the center stem of the letter.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"What
Figure 4: The “long s” (left) as compared to a lowercase “f” (right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

This solved some of the mystery, but what about the characters that looked like an \u201cf\u201d where the bottom of it curves to the left?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"What
Figure 5: Another style of the “long s,” depicted as it would appear in cursive handwriting.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The answer is that this is also a \u201clong s,\u201d but depicted how it was written in cursive. If you feel like you\u2019ve seen this character before, you’re probably correct: a notable example of this style of \u201clong s\u201d can be found in the first line of the Bill of Rights. Some may also recognize this character from calculus as the \u201cintegral\u201d symbol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"What
Figure 6: The “long s” that occurs in the word “Congress” as it appears in the handwritten Bill of Rights.<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"What
Figure 7: The “integral” symbol used in calculus uses the same character used for the cursive-style “long s.”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

When The Long S Was Used<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may have noticed in some of these examples that not every “s” is the long form. So, what exactly were the rules for when and where this character was used?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s difficult to say exactly, as the rules changed over time and writers\/printers didn\u2019t always adhere to the same rules. However, according to a blog from the National Archives<\/a>, some simple guidelines for when and where the \u201clong s\u201d was used are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n