ABSTRACT
119The S is a rather elegant glyph, with the serpentine play of positive and negative space. Our sound for it even resembles that of a snake. One would think that the ancient roots of the S would be a serpent, but not true, many believe that the early Semites drew the S to symbolize a bow, as in a bow and arrow. The early Semitic renderings look like the contour of a water buffalo’s horns. The Phoenician called this character the Shin, which looks like our present day W. These too had a horned appeal. The Shin was their word for tooth. Perhaps this character was a pair of fangs?
