Why did 18th century printers use "F" for "S"?

[nq:1]I noticed this watching the John & Abigail Adams special on PBS when they showed close-ups of contemporary documents. For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft", with an "F" replacing the "S". Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
It isn't an "F", but a "long 's'". I think origins had something to do with calculus, but don't quote me on it. The "long 's'" is still around. Look

[nq:1]I noticed this watching the John & Abigail Adams special on PBS when they showed close-ups of contemporary documents. For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft",[/nq]
No, it wouldn't.
[nq:1]with an "F" replacing the "S".[/nq]
No, it's a lowercase S, which you're interpreting as a lowercase F.
[nq:1]Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
The printed long-S approxi

[nq:1]I noticed this watching the John & Abigail Adams special on PBS when they showed close-ups of contemporary documents. For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft", with an "F" replacing the "S". Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
"Long s." If you look closely, you should see that what looks like an "f" isn't quite: the little cross-bar normally projects only to the left of the

[nq:1]I noticed this watching the John & Abigail Adams special on PBS when they showed close-ups of contemporary documents. For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft", with an "F" replacing the "S". Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
See, e g, http://www.alphalink.com.au/~u

[nq:1]I noticed this watching the John & Abigail Adams special on PBS when they showed close-ups of contemporary documents. For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft", with an "F" replacing the "S". Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
This is known as the CURSIVE S and resembles a lower case F but is not quite the same. Several alphabets e.g. Greek write a couple of letters in two

"J. W. Love" (Email Removed) skrev i melding

Is there a connection with the greek alphabet, which has both s-forms, IIRC? German had the s + "f" , too, and methinks a lot of the different methods that germanic languages have for indicating the distinction between long and short vowels and for making diphtongs seem like interpretations of how the greeks did it.
ah for aa, eh for ee etc

For an example of this in current use today, look up the Norwegian newspaper 'Aftenposten' ('Evening Post').
Their front page on the web (http://www.aftenposten.no) no longer shows this very prominently, but if you look at e.g.

[nq:1]Is there a connection with the greek alphabet, which has both s-forms, IIRC? German had the s + "f" , too,[/nq]
The latest official revision to the German language deleted that character and replaced it with a double "s". One still sees it, but it will eventually go away except where it is embedded in images such as logos.
To form this symbol, one writes an f (without the crossbar) t

[nq:1]For example, the word "most" would be printed "moft", with an "F" replacing the "S". Amyone know the reason for this?[/nq]
Oddly, I saw an ancient example of this at the MVSEVM.

Or perhaps it was just a typo. It could happen to amyone.

[nq:1]It isn't an "F", but a "long 's'". I think origins had something to do with calculus, but don't quote me on it. The "long 's'" is still around.[/nq]
No. Calculus adopted the pre-existing long 's' from which the modern integral sign is derived. It stands for "summation", analogous to the use of a capital sigma, which stands for the same thing.

Nat
Dr. Rey knows bait when he s