C • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of C

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noun

C n.

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 gamma, and came from the Greek alphabet. The Greeks got it from the Phoenicians. 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.

(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).

(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.

See images of 'C'

Etymology of 'C'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"C" Quotes from Famous Books

... bore a striking likeness to an "elliptical ring" descried in the same latitude by Mr. Gledhill in 1869-70. This, indeed, might be called the preliminary sketch for the famous object brought to perfection ten years later, but which Mr. H. C. Russell of Sydney saw and drew still unfinished in June, 1876,[1076] before it had separated from its matrix, the dusky south tropical belt. In earlier times, too, a marking "at once fixed and transient" had been repeatedly perceived attached to the southernmost of the central ...

— A Popular History of Astronomy During the Nineteenth Century - Fourth Edition • Agnes M. (Agnes Mary) Clerke

... country suffering from the destroying footsteps of the Western Kelts. There had been long before an overflow of a tribe in Northern Gaul (the Kymrians), which had hewed and plundered its way south and eastward; until at the time of Alexander (B.C. 340) it was knocking ...

— A Short History of France • Mary Platt Parmele

... no sooner had Paul mastered subject A than he was immediately provided with subject B, from which we passed to C, and even D. Often he felt giddy and confused, and drowsy ...

— The World's Greatest Books, Vol III • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.

... that island in 1506, and explored its coasts in the following years, could not have Ion. remained in ignorance of De Gonneville's voyage. The cross erected by his companion was, perhaps, not destroyed; but, so short a period having c-lapsed between their discoveries and the Norman captain's voyage, the natives could scarcely have forgotten so important an event. The only alternative theory would be that, in their explorations along the coast of the island, the Portuguese were so unfortunate as to ...

— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc

... appearance of being a very ordinary butcher's knife. There were some faint initials burnt upon the hilt, but these had been so worn by constant handling that there was only the faintest trace of what they had originally been. He could see an "M" and two other letters that looked like "C" and "A." ...

— The Daffodil Mystery • Edgar Wallace

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