Long S - Modern Usage

Modern Usage

The long s is represented in Unicode at the code point U+017F in the Latin Extended-A range, and it may be represented in HTML as ſ or ſ.

The long s survives in elongated form, and with an italic-style curled descender, as the integral symbol ∫ used in calculus; Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz based the character on the Latin word summa ("sum"), which he wrote ſumma. This use first appeared publicly in his paper De Geometria, published in Acta Eruditorum of June 1686, but he had been using it in private manuscripts at least since 1675. The following represents the integral of a function of x over the interval :

In linguistics a similar character (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 shun.

In Scandinavian and German-speaking countries, relics of the long s continue to be seen in signs and logos that use various forms of fraktur typefaces. Examples include the logos of the Norwegian newspapers Aftenpoſten and Adresſeaviſen; the packaging logo for Finnish Siſu pastilles; and the Jägermeiſter logo.

The similarity between the printed long s (ſ) and f and modern-day unfamiliarity with the former letter-form has been the subject of much humour based on the intentional misreading of s as f, e.g. pronouncing Greensleeves as Greenfleeves and song as fong in a Flanders and Swann monologue.

Another survival of the long s was the abbreviation used in British English for shilling, as in "5/–", where the shilling mark "/" stood in for the long s which had been long forgotten by all but antiquarians.