Editing R (section)

==History==
{| class="wikitable"
|- style="text-align:center;"
! Egyptian
! Proto-Sinaitic
! Phoenician<br />[[Resh]]
! Western Greek<br />[[Rho (letter)|Rho]]
! Etruscan<br />R
! Latin<br />R
|--- align=center
|<hiero>D1</hiero>
|[[File:Proto-semiticR-01.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x40px]]
| [[File:PhoenicianR-01.png|class=skin-invert-image|x30px]]
| [[File:Greek Rho pointed.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x40px]]
| [[File:EtruscanR-03.svg|class=skin-invert-image|x30px]]
| [[File:Capitalis monumentalis R.SVG|class=skin-invert-image|x30px]]
|}

===Antiquity===
[[File:Prognatus.png|thumb|The word {{lang|la|prognatus}} as written on the [[Sarcophagus of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus]] (280 BC) reveals the full development of the Latin {{angbr|R}} by that time; the letter {{angbr|P}} at the same time still retains its archaic shape distinguishing it from Greek or Old Italic ''rho''.]]
The letter {{angbr|R}} is believed to derive ultimately from an image of a head, used in [[Semitic alphabets]] for the sound {{IPA|/r/}} because the word for 'head' was ''[[rêš]]'' or similar in most [[Semitic languages]].  The word became the name of the letter, as an example of [[acrophony]].

It developed into Greek {{angbr|[[Rho (letter)|Ρ]]}} {{lang|grc|ῥῶ}} ({{transliteration|grc|rhô}}) and Latin {{angbr|R}}. The descending diagonal stroke develops as a graphic variant in some [[Western Greek alphabets]] (writing ''rho'' as [[File:Greek Rho 03.svg|class=skin-invert-image|20px| ]]), but it was not adopted in most [[Old Italic alphabet]]s; most Old Italic alphabets show variants of their ''rho'' between a {{angbr|P}} and a {{angbr|D}} shape, but without the Western Greek descending stroke.
Indeed, the oldest known forms of the Latin alphabet itself of the 7th to 6th centuries BC, in the [[Duenos Inscription|Duenos]] and the [[Forum inscription]], still write {{angbr|r}} using the {{angbr|P}}<!--𐌓Ρ--> shape of the letter.
The [[Lapis Satricanus]] inscription shows the form of the Latin alphabet around 500 BC. Here, the rounded, closing Π shape of the {{angbr|p}} <!--𐌐--> and the {{angbr|Ρ}} shape of the {{angbr|r}} have become difficult to distinguish.
The descending stroke of the Latin letter {{angbr|R}} has fully developed by the 3rd century BC, as seen in the [[Tomb of the Scipios]] sarcophagus inscriptions of that era. From {{circa|50 AD}}, the letter {{angbr|P}} would be written with its loop fully closed, assuming the shape formerly taken by {{angbr|R}}.

===Cursive===
[[File:Caslon-specimen-1763-double-pica-black.jpg|thumb|18th-century example of use of ''r rotunda'' in English blackletter typography]]
[[File:Luca Pacioli, De divina proportione, Letter R.jpg|thumb|Letter {{angbr|R}} from the alphabet by [[Luca Pacioli]], in ''[[De divina proportione]]'' (1509)]]

The minuscule form {{angbr|r}} developed through several variations on the capital form.
Along with Latin minuscule writing in general, it developed  ultimately from [[Roman cursive]] via the [[uncial]] script of Late Antiquity into the [[Carolingian minuscule]] of the 9th century.

In handwriting, it was common not to close the bottom of the loop but continue into the leg, saving an extra pen stroke. The loop-leg stroke shortened into the simple arc used in the Carolingian minuscule and until today.

A calligraphic minuscule {{angbr|r}}, known as ''[[r rotunda]]'' {{angbr|ꝛ}}, was used in the sequence {{angbr|or}}, bending the shape of the {{angbr|r}} to accommodate the bulge of the {{angbr|o}} as in {{angbr|oꝛ}}, as opposed to {{angbr|or}}. Later, the same variant was also used where {{angbr|r}} followed other lower case letters with a rounded loop towards the right, such as with {{angbr|b}}, {{angbr|h}}, {{angbr|p}}, as well as to write the geminate {{angbr|rr}} as {{angbr|ꝛꝛ}}. Use of ''r rotunda'' was mostly tied to [[blackletter]] typefaces, and the glyph fell out of use along with blackletter fonts in English language contexts mostly by the 18th century.

[[Insular script]] used a minuscule which retained two downward strokes, but which did not close the loop, known as the ''Insular r'' {{angbr|ꞃ}}; this variant survives in the [[Gaelic type]] popular in Ireland until the mid-20th century, but has become largely limited to a decorative function.