the.com/ligature
Two letters caught mid-kiss, refusing to be seen apart any longer.
means A ligature is a character formed by joining two or more letters into a single glyph, like æ or fi; more broadly, anything used to bind or tie, such as a surgical thread or a musical slur.
from From Latin ligatura, 'a binding,' from ligare, 'to tie or bind' — the same root that knots together 'ligament' (what ties your bones) and 'oblige' (what ties you to a duty). Whether it's letters fused on a page, a surgeon closing a vessel, or notes slurred together in music, the word always means the same gesture: something bound so it cannot come apart.
- ampersand origin
- & is a ligature of Latin 'et,' meaning and
- surgical sense
- A tied thread that strangles a bleeding vessel shut
- music too
- Curved line binding notes into one sustained breath
- lost letter
- æ and œ are fused vowels English mostly abandoned
- typography fix
- Born to stop 'fi' from colliding ugly
carotid artery ligation — surgical technique used to treat aneurysms and block blood flow, performed thousands of times in vascular surgery
fi ligature — typographic character combining f and i, used in english printing since the 15th century
dental ligature — elastic or wire bands used in orthodontics to secure archwires to braces, applied in millions of dental procedures