¦ abbreviation

1. Cricket caught by.

2. cent(s).

3. centi-: cSt (centistokes).

4. (c.) century or centuries.

5. (preceding a date or amount) circa.

6. colt.

¦ symbol Physics the speed of light in a vacuum: E = mc².

·- As a numeral, C stands for Latin centum or 100, CC for 200, ·etc.

II. C ·- The "C clef," a modification of the letter C, placed on any line of the staff, shows that line to be middle C.

III. C ·- 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 /.

IV. C ·- 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.

V. C ·- 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 /, /, and came from the Greek alphabet. The Greeks got it from the Ph/nicians. 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 ·Lat. acutus, ·Eng. acute, ague; ·Eng. acrid, eager, vinegar; ·Lat. cornu, ·Eng. horn; ·Eng. cat, kitten; ·Eng. coy, quiet; ·Lat. circare, ·OF cerchier, ·Eng. search.