Harding. — On Kerns and Serifs. 97 



other. An italic capital F, for example, followed by an o, 

 overhangs the smaller letter. The overhanging portion is 

 ingeniously bevelled off, affording the greatest possible sup- 

 port, and at the same time clearing the blank portion of the 

 type following. If it actually rested on the next type, no 

 matter how slightly, it would snap off under pressure. The 

 small / overhangs both at head and foot. The F has a 

 " kern " or is " kerned " ; the/ is " double-kerned." 



The word "serif" is more easily illustrated than described. 

 The ordinary roman capitals (THE) have serifs ; the charac- 

 ters known to sign-painters as " block letters " (THE) do not 

 possess them, and are called by printers " sans-serif," or with- 

 out serifs, a form which would suggest a French origin vrere 

 it not that in the fifteenth century " sans " was as good 

 English as French. The etymology of the word is wholly 

 unknown, and its uncertainty in this respect is emphasized by 

 the fact that scarcely any two authorities spell it alike. I 

 find it in all these forms, the first being the one adopted 

 in the earliest printers' dictionaries : " ceriph," " cerif," 

 " seriph," "serif," " seriff," " surryph," to which I may add 

 the form adopted by Dr. Adam Clarke, the learned commen- 

 tator, " seraph." 



Any one so inclined may introduce a few more changes, 

 but six recognised forms is a remarkable number. I know of 

 no other English word with so elastic an orthography. 



It is to Dr. Adam Clarke's note on the words " jot and 

 tittle " (Matt., v., 18) that I am indebted for what I think is a 

 clue to the real origin of the word. Our own word " tittle " 

 does not assist us — it is merely a diminutive. It figures in all 

 the seven historic versions, from Wicklif (1380) to the revised 

 version of our own times ; in the authorised version of 1611, 

 as in the Geneva version, it was spelt with one "t," but 

 Wicklif's spelling, " titil," clearly discriminates the word from 

 " title." Curiously enough the identical word appears in 

 Luther's German version, and in the Danish and Norwegian 

 Bibles ; in the Swedish, however, it is represented by another 

 term, equally familiar to English eyes — "prick." 



"Tittle," being Saxon, is a translation; "jot," on the 

 other hand, is an untranslated Hebrew word in Greek dress, 

 for the Hebrew names of the letters, though altogether foreign, 

 were adopted in a very slightly modified form in Greek. Con- 

 cerning "tittle," Clarke says: "One tittle or point, Kcpata, 

 either meaning those points which serve for vowels in this 

 language, if they then existed, or the ' seraphs,' or points, of 

 certain letters, such as 1 resh, or n daleth, n he, or n cheth (as 

 the change of any of these into the other would make a most 

 essential alteration in the sense, or, as the Kabbins say, destroy 

 the world). Or our Lord may refer to the little ornaments 

 7 



