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Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast

Words for Granted is a podcast that looks at how words change over time. Host Ray Belli uses etymology as a way of examining broader changes in history, culture, religion, and more.
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Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast
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Now displaying: June, 2021
Jun 27, 2021

In many English works printed before the late 19th century, a letter unfamiliar to us today, ſ, is often used in place of the letter S. However, that unfamiliar f-looking letter is actually just an archaic form of the letter S called "long s". In this episode, we explore the origins and decline of this odd orthographical relic. As a coda to our series on lost letters, we also explore the history of the ampersand (&), which up until the late 19th century was often listed as the 27th letter of the alphabet. 

Examples from the episode:

1. Us'd, Clos'd

2. Always puffs, offset, satisfaction; never puffſ, offſet, satiſfaction

3. 17th century: mask, disbelief; 18th century maſk, diſbelief

4. Confuſ-ed, diſ-appearance 

5. Geneſ.

1