Editing S (section)

===Long s===
[[File:Schwäbische Bastarda 1496 Schriftprobe Priesters Tochter.png|thumb|Late medieval German script (Swabian [[bastarda]], dated 1496) illustrating the use of long and round ''s'': ''prieſters tochter'' ("priest's daughter").]]
{{main|Long s}}

The [[lower case|minuscule form]]  ſ, called the [[long s|long ''s'']], developed in the early medieval period, within the [[Visigothic script|Visigothic]] and [[Carolingian minuscule|Carolingian]] hands, with predecessors in the [[half-uncial]] and [[Roman cursive|cursive]] scripts of [[Late Antiquity]]. It remained standard in western writing throughout the medieval period and was adopted in early printing with movable types. It existed alongside minuscule "round" or "short" ''s'', which were at the time only used at the end of words.

In most Western orthographies, the ſ gradually fell out of use during the second half of the 18th century, although it remained in occasional use into the 19th century. In Spain, the change was mainly accomplished between 1760 and 1766. In France, the change occurred between 1782 and 1793. Printers in the United States stopped using the long ''s'' between 1795 and 1810. In English orthography, the London printer [[John Bell (publisher)|John Bell]] (1745–1831) pioneered the change. His edition of Shakespeare, in 1785, was advertised with the claim that he "ventured to depart from the common mode by rejecting the long 'ſ' in favor of the round one, as being less liable to error....."<ref>Stanley Morison, ''A Memoir of John Bell, 1745–1831'' (1930, Cambridge Univ. Press) page 105; Daniel Berkeley Updike, ''Printing Types, Their History, Forms, and Use – a study in survivals'' (2nd. ed, 1951, [[Harvard University Press]]) page 293.</ref> [[The Times|''The Times'' of London]] made the switch from the long to the short ''s'' with its issue of 10 September 1803. [[History of the Encyclopædia Britannica|''Encyclopædia Britannica'']]'s 5th edition, completed in 1817, was the last edition to use the long ''s''.

In [[German orthography]], long ''s'' was retained in [[Fraktur]] ([[Schwabacher]]) type as well as in standard cursive ([[Sütterlin]]) well into the 20th century, until official use of that typeface was abolished in 1941.<ref>
[[:File:Schrifterlass Antiqua1941.gif|Order]] of 3 January  1941 to all public offices, signed by [[Martin Bormann]].
{{cite book |first=Albert |last=Kapr |title=Fraktur: Form und Geschichte der gebrochenen Schriften |location=Mainz |publisher=H. Schmidt |year=1993 |page=81 |isbn=3-87439-260-0 }}</ref> The [[Typographic ligature|ligature]] of ''ſs'' (or ''ſz'') was retained; however, it gave rise to the [[Eszett]] {{angbr|[[ß]]}} in contemporary German orthography.