short ess

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English

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Noun

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short ess (plural short esses)

  1. Alternative form of short s
    • 1895, M[oses] J[asper] Martin, Inductive German Method (The Werner Modern Language Series), book first, Chicago, Ill., New York, N.Y.: Werner School Book Company, page 6:
      Short ess, s, is used only at the end of a word or syllable;
    • 2001, Journal of the Printing Historical Society, page 11:
      There are also a few examples of books printed at around this time in which the long and short esses appear willy-nilly, due, no doubt, to an attempt to abandon the older usage, which partly failed due to carelessness, habit or lack of understanding on the part of the compositors involved.
    • 2009, “A Note to the Reader”, in Passing the Torch of Liberty to a New Generation, Powder Springs, Ga.: American Vision Press, →ISBN, page xvii:
      Short esses” (s) appear at the end of words, and “long esses” are never used for an upper case S.