{"id":21182,"date":"2021-07-16T12:12:41","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T12:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21182"},"modified":"2021-07-16T12:21:19","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T12:21:19","slug":"font-police","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.omniglot.com\/bloggle\/?p=21182","title":{"rendered":"Font Police"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do the words font<\/strong> and police<\/strong> have in common?<\/p>\n

Well, a font or typeface as used in computers and other electronic devices is called a police<\/strong> [p\u0254.lis] or police de caract\u00e8res<\/strong> in French.<\/p>\n

\"Words<\/p>\n

As well as meaning font, police<\/strong> also means policy, branch or department. It comes from the Italian word polizza<\/strong> (policy, bill, voucher), from the Medieval Latin apodissa<\/em> (receipt for money), from the Byzantine Greek *\u1f00\u03c0\u03cc\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03be\u03b1<\/em> (*ap\u00f3deixa), from Ancient Greek \u1f00\u03c0\u03cc\u03b4\u03b5\u03b9\u03be\u03b9\u03c2<\/em> (ap\u00f3deixis – proof, publication, demonstration). The English word policy<\/strong> comes from the same root [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n

The word police<\/strong>, as in the forces of law enforcement, comes from the Middle French police<\/em> (governance; management), from Latin pol\u012bt\u012ba<\/em> (state, government), from Ancient Greek \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b9\u03c4\u03b5\u03af\u03b1<\/em> (polite\u00eda – citizenship, government, adminstration), from \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u1fd1\u0301\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2<\/em> (pol\u012b\u0301t\u0113s – citizen) [source<\/a>].<\/p>\n

\"la<\/a>