The letter S began as a tooth and once had a long, elegant twin.

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: The nineteenth letter of the Latin alphabet has a surprisingly complex lineage. It evolved from a Semitic pictogram of a tooth into the versatile character we use today. For centuries, English and other Western languages relied on a long, slender variant known as the long s, which eventually vanished.

The origins of the letter S trace back to the Northwest Semitic šîn, which likely represented a tooth. Through the acrophonic principle, this pictogram became associated with the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/. When the Greeks adopted the alphabet, they lacked this specific sound, so they repurposed the letter as Sigma (Σ) to represent the voiceless alveolar sibilant /s/. The shape of the modern Latin S emerged by simplifying the four-stroke Greek Σ into a three-stroke variant, a design choice also seen in early runic inscriptions like the Elder Futhark sowilō.

For much of history, the letter existed in two forms: the familiar round s and the long s (ſ). The long s was a standard feature of medieval scripts and early printing, typically used in all positions except at the end of words. Its decline was a gradual process that swept through the Western world during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In Spain, the transition occurred between 1760 and 1766, while in France, it took place between 1782 and 1793. American printers abandoned the character between 1795 and 1810.

The shift was often driven by practical concerns, such as reducing printing errors. London printer John Bell, who famously rejected the long s in his 1785 Shakespeare edition, argued that the round s was less prone to confusion. The Times of London officially switched in 1803, and the 5th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, completed in 1817, marked the final appearance of the long s in that publication. While it disappeared from English, the long s survived in German Fraktur and cursive scripts until 1941, leaving a permanent legacy in the German Eszett (ß), which originated as a ligature of the long s and s or z.

General information, not professional advice. Spotted an error? Flag the card or see corrections and complaints.

Intellect Plus is a visual educational discovery platform for exploring fascinating facts and ideas. Brain Food, Not Brain Rot. What is Intellect Plus?

Related

• Why the letter 's' used to look like an 'f' in old English books
• Why the Romanian letter ș spent decades fighting for its place in digital text
• The ancient ox head that became our first letter
• The linguistic shapeshifter: how one letter transformed from a camel to a click
• The English alphabet was not always twenty-six letters long
• The Philippines flies its flag upside down to announce a war
• The evolution of Russian identity is written in its banners
• Why a burning ship might yell 'Yuliet alfa vore' to be saved
• Livy wondered what if Alexander had attacked Rome, inventing alternate history
• The three lions of England probably trace back to one Angevin count
• Listening is not a passive act; it is a tool for personality change
• When archaeologists say culture, they mean pots that keep turning up together

More in Auxiliary historical sciences · More in History · Latest · A–Z · All topics