If you've ever been to a math talk (at least in pure maths in the UK) you've probably seen something like this written:
Theorem (E.--Johnson--Smith, 2022+) The XYZ conjecture is true.
At some point you probably realized that writing "E." is the speaker's way of being... modest? lazy? Anyway, it is the initial of the speaker's surname and it means this is the speaker's work (joint work in this case), and probably the thing being spoken about.
What is the origin of this practice? Is it old? Is it widespread? Is it used in other fields? Should we really bother?
Occasionally for variety I have written "speaker" instead of "E.".
