The / has the form it does because it is an abbreviation for ∫ “Long S” sometimes known as the integral symbol. It is also called a shilling mark.
So we have a single-stroke symbol that is an textual abbreviation for another single-stroke symbol. The abbreviation has two names, both derived from denominations of coins.
2 comments:
I don't think / is an 'abbreviation' for long s; it is simply a form of long s. When I was young and British, a sum of money in pounds, shillings and pence would commonly be written e.g. £2 10/6d. £2/10/6 was not the form used, because the first '/' doesn't apply. It seems such a long time ago now!
I must confess that I never experienced pre-decimalized Britain. Most of the post information comes from reading Wikipedia and Unicode references.
Wikipedia says "The 's.' was at one stage written using a long s, ∫ that was further abbreviated to the ⁄ symbol..." I thought the Editors of Wikipedia had used the 'abbreviated' in an interesting sense, using it to mean simplifying a line, which I was trying to subtly call attention too.
I have been interested in typesetting symbols used in commerce (such as the new Rupee symbol) and numismatics (such as the mysterious )(. I encourage readers with interest in symbols to post them as comments to this thread.
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