Episode 156: Beggars, Cheats and Thieves
The History of English Podcast
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The Origin of the Apostrophe in English
The apostrophe didn't exist in english before this particular text. It had been used by french printers to indicate a missing letter for about 30 years prior to this point. Today we also use the apostrophe to indicate possession. One theory is that it was simply an extension of the idea of using it to indicates a missing ter.
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