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Webster 1913 Edition

C

(sē)

C is the third letter of the English alphabet. It is from the Latin letter C, which in old Latin represented the sounds of k, and g (in go); its original value being the latter. In Anglo-Saxon words, or Old English before the Norman Conquest, it always has the sound of k. The Latin C was the same letter as the Greek Γ, γ, and came from the Greek alphabet. The Greeks got it from the Phœnicians. The English name of C is from the Latin name ce, and was derived, probably, through the French. Etymologically C is related to g, h, k, q, s (and other sibilant sounds). Examples of these relations are in L. acutus, E. acute, ague; E. acrid, eager, vinegar; L. cornu, E. horn; E. cat, kitten; E. coy, quiet; L. circare, OF. cerchier, E. search.

See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 221-228.

(Mus.)

(a)

The keynote of the normal or “natural” scale, which has neither flats nor sharps in its signature; also, the third note of the relative minor scale of the same.

(b)

C after the clef is the mark of common time, in which each measure is a semibreve (four fourths or crotchets); for alla breve time it is written [GREEK].

(c)

The “C clef,” a modification of the letter C, placed on any line of the staff, shows that line to be middle C.

As a numeral, C stands for Latin

centum

or 100, CC for 200, etc.

C spring

a spring in the form of the letter C.

Webster 1828 Edition

C

, the third letter in the English alphabet, and the second articulation or consonant, is a palatal, nearly corresponding in sound with the Greek x, kappa, and with the Hebrew, caph. It bears a middle place in pronunciation, between the aspirate, and the palatal. It is a Roman character, borrowed from the Gr.x, or from the oriental, which was used in languages written from right to left, and when inverted and the corners rounded, becomes C. In the old Etruscan, it was written with the corners rounded, but not inverted; in Arcadian, C, as now written. That its sound in Latin was the same, or nearly the same, as that of kappa, may be known from the fact, that the Greeks, while the Latin was a living language, wrote kappa for the Roman C. Perhaps the same character may be the basis of the Arabic.

As an abbreviature, C stands for Caius, Carolus, Caesar, condemno, &c., and CC for consulibus. As a numeral C stands for 100; CC for 200; &c. In music, C after the cliff, is the mark of common time.

In English, C has two sounds, or rather it represents two very different articulations of the organs; one close, like K, which occurs before a, o and u; the other, a sibilant, precisely like s, which occurs before E, I and Y. The former is distinguished in this vocabulary by C, which may be called ke. In Russ. C is precisely the English s, as it was in the old Greek alphabet.

Definition 2024

C

C	U+0043, C LATIN CAPITAL LETTER C

← B
[U+0042]

Basic Latin

D →
[U+0044]

See also: c and Appendix:Variations of "c"

Translingual

Etymology 1

From Etruscan 𐌂 ‎(C), from Greek Γ ‎(G, “Gamma”), from Phoenician 𐤂 ‎(G, “gimmel”).

Letter

C upper case (lower case c)

The third letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.

Etymology 2

A standardization of Ɔ and C because the latter happens to be an abbreviation of Latin centum ‎(“hundred”), from abbreviation of ƆIC, an alternate form of >I<, from tally stick markings resembling Ж (a superimposed X and I), from the practice of designating each tenth X notch with an extra cut.

Alternative forms

c, Ⅽ, ⅽ

Numeral

C ‎(upper case Roman numeral, lower case c)

(mathematics) cardinal number one hundred (100).

Usage notes

With a bar over the numeral, i.e., as C, it represents one hundred thousand.

Derived terms

English: c-note

Etymology 3

(element symbol, carbon): abbreviation
(metrology, coulomb): abbreviation
(computing, hexadecimal 12): From its position as the twelfth element of the series {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F}

Symbol

(chemistry) Carbon.
(metrology) Symbol for the coulomb, an SI unit of electric charge.
(computing, hexadecimal) The digit for 12.
0x0000000C
(genetics) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for any cytosine
(biochemistry) IUPAC 1-letter abbreviation for cysteine
(mathematics) differentiable class
C¹ functions are differentiable once, and C² functions are twice differentiable
(mathematics) denotes the constant of integration
$\int \cos x\,dx=\sin x+C$
(physics) capacitance