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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Because, as you probably just noticed, it's sometimes part of a sentence, used without the name. Maybe I'm texting "Dr says it's not a tumor, I'm pregnant" or something.

In addition, Dr (w/ or w/o .) sometimes means Drive, and USPS sorting machines prefer no dots, so that might also drive autotype to choose dotless, or at least offer it.

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