#long s

[yeoldenews]

The excerpt in question from this post...

@itsmedontpanic Oddly enough it's from a British Parliamentary debate about colonial taxation in 1774.

"Mr. Burke" was Edmund Burke, an Irish MP very critical of British policy in the American colonies, and "Mr. Grenville" was George Grenville, the recently deceased former Prime Minister who implemented the Stamp Act.

You occasionally see vampirism used as an allegory for taxation/government overreach/colonialism/capitalism from the mid-18th Century onward.

[supremeorphan]

Sound of Silence but written in the 13th century

hello darkneſs my olde friend i've come to ſpeake with thee againe

[houghtonlib]

ſ versus f versus s

A question that often comes up in working with early materials is "why is everything fpelled fo ftrangely?"

It turns out that prior to approximately 1800, there were two different ways to write or print a lowercase letter S. They are known as long S and short S and there was a set of conventions about when to use each one. For readers of the time, they represented exactly the same letter, just as capital and lowercase letters do (the shape makes some sense if you think about taking a modern S and stretching it from the top and bottom). They wouldn't have had any trouble distinguishing a long S from an F, but it can definitely cause some confusion to the modern eye.

A long S is typographically different from an F in one main way--it will either have no crossbar or a short one on the left side only. But a pretty good rule of thumb is, if you're expecting to see an S in a word, it's an S.

[dimity-lawn]

Sometimes I love autosuggestions. I typed “say” and it recommended that I use a long s instead.

[cat-denied]

press ſ to pay reſpects

[ollieoliveoboelo22]

For my friends who like reading old documents and wanted to know more about the Long S (thing that looks like a f)

In print, it fell out of use in the last 18th/early 19th century. It lasted longer in handwriting from those who were taught long S (looking at you Ben)

The ‘Long S’

In my many tumbles down the research rabbit hole, I have ended up in a number of manuscripts published in the 1700s and 1800s with which I h

[silliestcolressfan]

the long s

THE LONG S

it is a NIGHTMARE as someone with astigmatism. it makes me want to rip my hair out, it looks too similar to an f, some of them LOOK like an f. who's bright idea was this?????? are you feeling happy? does this bring you joy? do you rest well in your grave? are you fucking proud of what you've done? this doesn't make sense, why would you create the long s if you're also going to have the rounded s (aka a NORMAL s) along with it???? can we just pick and choose where we use the long s or what???? im going to invent time travel and kill you before you can create the long s you son of a bitch, look out. look fucking out.