[gumby]

> Eszett (which comes from the ligature of 'ss')

ß is both visually and from its name (‘s’ ‘z’) a ligature of s and z (“Eszett” in English is “ess-zed). An ss ligature would look like a double integral sign. “Sz” seems like a better way to represent that sound, so I don’t know why it morphed into “ss”

Greek has two characters for s, one for use in the middle and one for the ends of words. English lost this in the late 18th or early 19th century (look in the Declaration of Independence for examples). German kept it longer, at least in Fraktur, which included other standard ligatures, even in handwritten text, such as ch, tz et al. The Umlaut mark can also be considered a ligature for E which is how it was originally drawn.