Long s

The long s ⟨ſ⟩, also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter ⟨s⟩, found mostly in works of the late 8th to early 19th centuries. It replaced the single s, or one or both^[a] of the letters s in a double-s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſſeſs" or "poſseſs" for "possess", but never "poſſeſſ").^[1] The modern ⟨s⟩ letterform is known as the "short", "terminal", or "round" s. In typography, the long s is known as a type of swash letter, commonly referred to as a "swash s".^[2] The long s is the basis of the first half of the grapheme of the German alphabet ligature letter ⟨ß⟩,^[3] (eszett or scharfes s, 'sharp s'). As with other letters, the long s may have a variant appearance depending on typeface: ſ, ſ, ſ, ſ.

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