Where did the abbreviation "w/" for "with" come from?

Zyratoxx@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 230 points –

Hi, English isn't my mother tongue so I was asking myself that question since I first encounted a w/... Back then I was like: "What tf does 'w slash' stand for?" And when I found out I was like "How, why, and is it any intuitive?" But I never dared to ask that until now

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Don’t forget re: which means regarding or in reference to, not reply.

... I think it's actually a Latin word, "re,", meaning, "the matter (subject)" not an abbreviation at all.

yeah this is a real pet peeve of mine.

In German many people, web mailers and also sometimes even email software use "AW:" (short for AntWort) instead of "Re:" and then some of them don't even recognize the existence of a previous "AW:" or "Re:" giving you such wondrous email subjects as: "AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: AW: Re: AW: Re: really important subject" 🤦

Oh, that totally works with a single language too: "Re: Re: Re:..." or "AW: AW: AW:..." seen both of that often enough.

yes indeed. i keep being confused how email can still suck so much sometimes when it had decades to mature.

Massive amounts of federation ;)

It's really hard to get thousands of software development companies, hundreds of thousands of hosters and billions of users to unitedly go for a new thing.

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“AW: Re: AW: Re: AW: AW: Re: AW: Re:

Ah, yes, you get forwards from my boomer-aged father, too!

The Foreword? Or is that answer? Forward in English would be the author's message at the beginning of a book.

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