The abbreviation cf. (short for either
Latin
Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
or , both meaning 'compare') is generally used in writing to refer the reader to other material to make a comparison with the topic being discussed. However some sources offer differing or even contradictory
usage guides, as covered below. In
Italian, the abbreviation "cfr." (''confronta'', 'confront') is more common than "cf."
Conflicting and differing usage guides
Style guides such as
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill writing center and the
Chicago Manual of Style recommend that "cf." be used only to suggest a comparison, and the words "see" or "
vide" be used generally to point to a source of information. However a 2010
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the main professional organization of psychologists in the United States, and the largest psychological association in the world. It has over 170,000 members, including scientists, educators, clin ...
(APA) style guide states cf. should be "used to provide contrasting or opposing information" and that "to compare like things, use "see" or "see also."
Meanwhile
Wex, the online legal dictionary created by
Cornell Law School, suggests that "a cf. source simply offers a different yet non-contradictory claim and actual support to the claim just made should not be assumed. If the source gives a contradictory claim, a negative signal should be used." They offer, "in order from mutually exclusive to somewhat contradictory," Contra, But see, and But cf. as examples of proper negative signals for contradicting claims.
The conflicts between these definitions may suggest a general confusion or disagreement as to proper usage or differing conventions between scholarly disciplines such as law and psychology.
Biological use
In biological naming conventions, cf. is commonly placed between the
genus name and the
species name to describe a specimen that is hard to identify because of practical difficulties, such as poor preservation. For example, " cf. " indicates that the specimen is in the genus ''
Barbus'' and believed to be , but the actual species-level identification cannot be certain.
Cf. can also be used to express a possible identity, or at least a significant resemblance, such as between a newly observed specimen and a known
species
A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
or
taxon
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; : taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular name and ...
.
Such a usage might suggest a specimen's membership of the same genus or possibly of a shared higher taxon. For example, in the note ", cf. ", the author is confident of the order and family (
Diptera:
Tabanidae) but can only suggest the genus (''
Tabanus'') and has no information favouring a particular species.
Numismatic use
Among
numismatist
A numismatist is a specialist, researcher, and/or well-informed collector of numismatics, numismatics/coins ("of coins"; from Late Latin , genitive of ). Numismatists can include collectors, specialist dealers, and scholar-researchers who use coi ...
s (coin collector-research specialists), cf. may be used in references on the paper and/or online coin identification information meaning "compare to". It is common for abbreviations of listings in trusted coin catalogues or sales from certain online auctions to be cited when identifying a particular coin. If the specimen in question is not an exact match but comes close to a known source, cf. may be used.
See also
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List of Latin abbreviations
This is a list of common Latin abbreviations. Nearly all the abbreviations below have been adopted by Modern English. However, with some exceptions (for example, ''versus'' or '' modus operandi''), most of the Latin referent words and phrases a ...
References
External links
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* {{Wiktionary-inline, confer
Abbreviations
Latin words and phrases