> > I think it was originally "fußball", with the 'ß' being pronounced like an 's'.
>
> The ß is actually a double s, so it could also be written "fussball". The ß symbol is a ligature. "Ligature" means binding, tying, joining together, and in typography, it means joining letters together, like æ, œ etc. In print, fi, ff, fl and ffi are the most common ligatures. For more on ligatures, follow the link below.
>
> The ß is a ligature of a long-s (looking like an f without the dash across it), and a latin s. In the old times' calligraphy, the s was often written like that (the dashless f). I don't know why, or what the rules were for using one over the other, but I know that double s'es were written with the long-s first, then the latin one.
>

Correct. But the ß is now treated as a letter in German and called "sz" (HTML code for it: & szlig, the "lig" meaning ligature) when mentioned. So it can't be written Fussball (nouns are always capitalized in German) with the current rule; one of the reasons being that ss at the end of a word, after a long vowel, is always substituted by ß. The spelling of composite words is not adjusted.
The ß also appeared after short vowels at the end of words or before consonants until one or two years ago, when there was a really, really stupid reform that was supposed to simplify the spelling of German but in fact made it more illogical in many points, and totally disregarded relations of words and etymological thingies and that. (Besides, the new spellings look ugly.) Before that, ss only happened between vowels inside words where the first vowel was short. Otherwise, it was ß.

AFAIK (I think this should become a word), the long-s was used inside words and at their beginning, while the normal Latin s was used when a word ended in a single s. Double s before a consonant only happened after a short vowel, and in that case this ligature was used. I may be wrong about some things, please correct me if I am.

> Trav"maybe someone else more proficient in calligraphy (or with more time to search the Internet) can elaborate and educate us on that matter"holt.

Fuzz"no time to search right now"pilz