When Did English Lose the Long Letter S?



Above is a selection from a 1711 printing of Milton's Paradise Lost. Notice that what appears to be the modern letter f appears in the place of the modern letter s. This is the "long s"--a typographical practice of past centuries. When did it fade away? Evan Soltas used Google's N-gram function to assess when "Paradife Loft" became "Paradise Lost". This is what he found:



The switch occurred over a century spanning 1750-1850.

Link -via Marginal Revolution | More Info on the Long S

An impressive share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who has been conducting a
little research on this. And he actually ordered me lunch due to the fact that I found it for him.
.. lol. So allow me to reword this.... Thanks for the meal!
! But yeah, thanx for spending some time to discuss this subject here on your web page.
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