ſ

Letter

 * 1)  The long s, a form of the letter ess (S).

Derived terms

 * (ſt)
 * (Archaic) Scots S
 * (Archaic) Scots S

Letter

 * 1) * 1785, Vicesimus Knox, Liberal Education: Or, a Practical Treatiſe on the Methods of Acquiring Uſeful and Polite Learning, vol. II, pp. 1 & 3, section XXXI: On the regulation of puerile diverſions:
 * Many fanciful methods have been invented by thoſe who wiſhed to render puerile ſports conducive to improvement. I never found that they were ſucceſsful.
 * I muſt own myſelf an advocate for puerile liberty*, during the alloted hours of relaxation. Boys have much reſtraint and confinement in the time of ſtudy.
 * Thoſe of the effeminate kind ſuperinduce effeminacy; weakneſs of mind, no leſs than imbecility of body. Something ſimilar happens in puerile diverſions. The boy who has been kept in leading-ſtrings too long, and reſtrained from hardy ſports by the fondneſs of his mother, will ſcarcely ever become a man; or poſſeſs that becoming ſpirit which can enable him to act his part with propriety.
 * 1) * 1785, Vicesimus Knox, Liberal Education: Or, a Practical Treatiſe on the Methods of Acquiring Uſeful and Polite Learning, vol. II, pp. 1 & 3, section XXXI: On the regulation of puerile diverſions:
 * Many fanciful methods have been invented by thoſe who wiſhed to render puerile ſports conducive to improvement. I never found that they were ſucceſsful.
 * I muſt own myſelf an advocate for puerile liberty*, during the alloted hours of relaxation. Boys have much reſtraint and confinement in the time of ſtudy.
 * Thoſe of the effeminate kind ſuperinduce effeminacy; weakneſs of mind, no leſs than imbecility of body. Something ſimilar happens in puerile diverſions. The boy who has been kept in leading-ſtrings too long, and reſtrained from hardy ſports by the fondneſs of his mother, will ſcarcely ever become a man; or poſſeſs that becoming ſpirit which can enable him to act his part with propriety.
 * 1) * 1785, Vicesimus Knox, Liberal Education: Or, a Practical Treatiſe on the Methods of Acquiring Uſeful and Polite Learning, vol. II, pp. 1 & 3, section XXXI: On the regulation of puerile diverſions:
 * Many fanciful methods have been invented by thoſe who wiſhed to render puerile ſports conducive to improvement. I never found that they were ſucceſsful.
 * I muſt own myſelf an advocate for puerile liberty*, during the alloted hours of relaxation. Boys have much reſtraint and confinement in the time of ſtudy.
 * Thoſe of the effeminate kind ſuperinduce effeminacy; weakneſs of mind, no leſs than imbecility of body. Something ſimilar happens in puerile diverſions. The boy who has been kept in leading-ſtrings too long, and reſtrained from hardy ſports by the fondneſs of his mother, will ſcarcely ever become a man; or poſſeſs that becoming ſpirit which can enable him to act his part with propriety.

Usage notes

 * This is the long, medial, or descending s, as distinct from the short or terminal s (s).
 * In Roman and Fraktur script, the long S was typically used everywhere except at the end of words, where the short S was used, with exceptions:
 * The use of short S at the end of words was sometimes maintained even in derivative or compound words, as for example hisſelf (his + (-)ſelf), ſucceſsful (ſucceſs + -ful), princeſsſhip (see the 1767 quotation).
 * Short S was sometimes used before letters with left-side ascenders, like b, f, or long ſ, which the top curl of a long S would overlap, making the sequence either difficult to print or unaesthetic, hence e.g. whisker instead of whiſker. An alternative was to insert a space between the long S and the ascender (whiſ&#8239;ker), or use a ligature.
 * Some documents wrote or typeset ss as ſs, e.g. in neceſsary, either as a deviation from all nonfinal s being ſ (especially in handwriting), or as a deviation from all s being s (as in the US Declaration of Independence: "When in the Course of human events, it becomes neceſsary for one people to diſsolve...", or US Constitution: "the first Claſs shall...").
 * This distinction occurred only in minuscule (lowercase); the single majuscule (uppercase) form S was used regardless of word-position.
 * Sometimes “ﬆ” was used instead of “ſt”.

Usage notes

 * The long s was in regular use in Finnish texts written in fraktur (blackletter), which was the most common type until the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When Finnish texts began using Roman type, the long s also fell out of use.
 * At first, the short s was only used at the end of a word and long s in other positions (with some exceptions). Over time, short s became more common, and during the 19th century, the short s was generally used at the end of a syllable and the long s at the beginning of a syllable.