1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 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 &quot;long s&quot;. 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 (&amp;amp;), which up until the late 19th century was often listed as the 27th letter of the alphabet.&amp;nbsp; 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&amp;nbsp; 5. Geneſ. Words for Granted - An etymology and linguistics podcast http://wordsforgranted.com <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/19617497/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/item/19617497