Indeed, this article is embarrassingly wrong. Not sure how anyone could write > The letter I [...] would be referred to with the phrase I per se, I, which mean

Indeed, this article is embarrassingly wrong. Not sure how anyone could write > The letter I [...] would be referred to with the phrase I per se, I, which means in Latin "I by itself (is the word) I." It's the letter I, not the word. It's like a half-remembered explanation