Saint abbreviation

Question

I would like to know if there is a way to abbreviate "saint" in this french way. A dash is also commonly used.

My researches are unsuccessful at this point, thanks in advance.

This is not a standard abbreviation and is used just for street signs, as far as I know. Did you find in other texts? — egreg, Feb 26 '19 at 15:01
Okay did not know that. I don't think so, mainly on street sign yes. I really like the way it look compare to a simple St. I should not use it in a french document? — tugdual, Feb 26 '19 at 15:11
Peripherally related: https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/364024/scots-irish-american-surnames-mc-how-to-achieve-a-range-of-aesthetically-appe — Steven B. Segletes, Feb 26 '19 at 15:21
Normally, this adjective should not be abbreviated in French, except occasionally if you're lacking space. — Bernard, Feb 26 '19 at 15:29
Leaving aside why this was 'abbreviated' in the first place (perhaps this rule is English language only, and not French) ... but in general, "St" is not an abbreviation, but a contraction for the word "Saint". This means it should not have a 'dot' at all in the first place, i.e. St Germain. Compare to "Street", which is an abbreviation, e.g.: "St George St.". The same goes with other contractions vs abbreviations, e.g. "Dr Jekyll" but "Prof. Hyde". — Tasos Papastylianou, Feb 26 '19 at 16:09
As egreg stated it, the proper way to write it in French is Saint-Germain, eventually St-Germain. No dot at all. — sztruks, Feb 26 '19 at 17:21
@TasosPapastylianou That depends on your culture. Americans (and Canadians?) put periods after contractions ("Dr.") where Brits do not. — Azor Ahai -him-, Feb 26 '19 at 23:08
@AzorAhai I would argue it's not a cultural thing, but simply that grammatically speaking it's a form of hypercorrection that seems to have established itself by common use, much like like "virii" or "expresso". In a sense, using the hypercorrected variant is fine in an informal context, but given a choice, personally I would always go for the grammatically correct version. This is in contrast to purely orthographic established deviations between UK and US english (e.g. centre vs center / advise vs advize ... though I suppose one could argue those started as hypercorrections the same way ...) — Tasos Papastylianou, Feb 27 '19 at 11:42
@TasosPapastylianou No, a period on the end of "Dr" or not is not a grammatical feature. There is no "grammatically correct version." One option is correct in the UK and one is correct in the US. — Azor Ahai -him-, Feb 27 '19 at 17:51
@AzorAhai hm, you're right. Interesting. Seems like in the UK, the Oxford dictionary prescribes no period as the preferred way of writing contractions, whereas in US professional writing the convention (presumably due to common use variability) is to follow their institution's preferred manual of style (e.g. some style manuals, like the Chicago Manual of Style, prescribe periods, whereas others, like the Modern Language Association style manual, prescribe their omission). Whereas I had thought the use of periods was more of a common use artefact. Good to know it's more established than that. — Tasos Papastylianou, Feb 27 '19 at 19:55
@TasosPapastylianou I've never seen an American omit the period in any sort of writing, in newspapers, literature, scientific, etc. Was not aware the MLA suggests not using it. — Azor Ahai -him-, Feb 27 '19 at 19:57

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 26 '19 at 15:07

The following should produce what you want. You can use an optional argument to specify another letter than T (e.g. t):

\documentclass[]{article}

\newsavebox\myboxA
\newsavebox\myboxB
\newcommand\saint[1][T]
  {%
    \begingroup
    \sbox\myboxA{S}%
    \usebox\myboxA
    \sbox\myboxB{\tiny#1}%
    \rlap{\raisebox{\dimexpr\ht\myboxA-\ht\myboxB}{\usebox\myboxB}}%
    \makebox[\wd\myboxB]{.}%
    \endgroup
  }

\begin{document}
\saint\ Germain
\saint[t] Germain
\end{document}

egreg · Answer 2 · 2019-02-26T15:44:25.187

Just for fun:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{xparse}
\usepackage{fontspec}

\setmainfont{Libre Bodoni}

\NewDocumentCommand{\frabbr}{sm}{%
  \IfBooleanTF{#1}{\dofrabbr{}{#2}}{\dofrabbr{\hfil}{#2}}%
}

\newcommand{\dofrabbr}[2]{%
  \vbox to\fontcharht\font`T {%
    \ialign{%
      #1##\hfil\cr
      \relscriptsize#2\cr
      \noalign{\nointerlineskip\vfill}
      .\cr
    }%
  }%
}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\relscriptsize}{%
  \check@mathfonts\fontsize\ssf@size\z@\selectfont
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

\bfseries
\begin{tabular}{@{}c@{}}
6\frabbr*{me} Arr\frabbr{T} \\
BOULEVARD \\
S\frabbr{T} GERMAIN
\end{tabular}

\end{document}

Saint abbreviation

2 Answers2