Et cetera

The &c (et ceterarum, "Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland and another") shows that Oliver Cromwell did not renounce the English claims on France

Et cetera (in English; /ɛtˈsɛtərə/; Latin pronunciation: [ɛt ˈkeːtɛra]), abbreviated to etc., etc, &c., or &c,[1][2] is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and other similar things", or "and so forth". Et means 'and'; cētera means 'the rest'. In Latin, the expression means "and the rest (of such things)". It is a calque of the Greek καὶ τὰ ἕτερα kai ta hetera, 'and the other things'. (The more usual Greek form is και τα λοιπά καὶ τὰ loipa, 'and the remainder'.)

Spellings and usage

The one-word spelling "etcetera" is commonly used and appears in some dictionaries.[3] It is also sometimes spelled et caetera, et coetera, et cœtera, or etceteros. Some abbreviations that are still used in the United Kingdom, Australia, and India are considered archaic in the United States and commonly used only in legislation, notations for mathematics, or qualifications; these include &ca, etca, &/c., &e., &ct., &cm, etcm, &cs, and etcs. (The ampersand derives from a ligature of et. This is occasionally formed by knowing et to mean and but not realising & is equivalent to et.)

The phrase et cetera is often used to denote the logical continuation of some sort of series of descriptions. For example, in the following expression:

We will need a lot of bread: wheat, granary, wholemeal, etc.
etc. in Fraktur

In blackletter (Gothic or Fraktur) typography, the "r rotunda" (ꝛ) is sometimes used for et in place of the similar-looking Tironian et (⁊).

Use by monarchs

European monarchs with lengthy titles, dynastic claims to territories accumulated over centuries, and considerable prestige have often shortened a long string of titles by concluding it with "et cetera", often in repetition to stress the monarch's grandeur.

One who did so was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia (using the Russian equivalent expression), who traditionally began each proclamation with his title shortened only slightly: "We, Nicholas II, by the Grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of All the Russias, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera".

In the 1956 film The King and I, Yul Brynner repeatedly used the expression "...et cetera, et cetera, et cetera..." in his portrayal of King Mongkut of Siam, to characterize the king as wanting to impress everyone with his breadth of great knowledge and the importance of one with no need to expound.[4] This reflected the usage in the novel, Anna and the King of Siam, which expressed that king's playful understanding of innumerable things with the phrase, "&c., &c."[4]

Similar Latin expressions

Other uses

"Et cetera" and derivatives, such as "etceteras", have long been, and still are, used airily, humorously or dismissively, often as a cadigan, for example:

In other languages

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Guardian Style Guide".
  2. ↑ "UK Government Style Guide".
  3. ↑ Brown, Lesley (1993). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Oxford [Eng.]: Clarendon. ISBN 0-19-861271-0.
  4. 1 2 Overstreet, Maryann (1999), Whales, candlelight, and stuff like that, p. 130, ISBN 978-0-19-512574-0
  5. ↑ Sir Ernest Gowers, Fowler's Modern English Usage, Second Edition. Published: Book Club Associates (1965)
  6. ↑ Helme, Elizabeth. "The farmer of Inglewood Forest: or, An affecting portrait of virtue and vice" Printed and Published by J. Cleave and Son, 1823
  7. ↑ The Farmer's register, Volume 1. Snowden & M'Corkle, 1834. (Google Books)
  8. ↑ Degens, Egon T. "Perspectives on Biogeochemistry" Springer-Verlag 1989. ISBN 978-0387501918
  9. ↑ Maiorino, Giancarlo. "First pages: a poetics of titles" Penn State Press, 2008
  10. ↑ "/etc". www.tldp.org. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
  11. ↑ "Filesystem Hierarchy Standard". www.pathname.com. Retrieved 2017-07-06.
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