Where does “ß” come from?

ß (Translingual) comes from Latin sēmis, from Latin tertius, from Latin trēs, from Proto-Italic trēs, from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes.

Ancestry of “ß”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Latinsēmisa half, a half-unit
2Latintertiusthird, the ordinal number after secundus and...
3Latintrēsthree; 3
4Proto-Italictrēsthree
5Proto-Indo-European*tréyes—
Every word from Proto-Indo-European *tréyes →