''Et cetera'' (, ), abbreviated to ''etc.'', ''et cet.'', ''&c.'' or ''&c'', is a

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 ...

expression that is used in English to mean "and all the rest". "&" is a ligature of "et." Translated literally from Latin, can mean , while can mean ; thus, the expression translates to . ''Et cetera'' is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

(loanword/phrase) of the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the koiné language, common supra-regional form of Greek language, Greek spoken and ...

() meaning 'and the other things'. The typical

Modern Greek Modern Greek (, or , ), generally referred to by speakers simply as Greek (, ), refers collectively to the dialects of the Greek language spoken in the modern era, including the official standardized form of the language sometimes referred to ...

form is (), 'and the remainder'.

Spelling and usage

The one-word spelling ''etcetera'' appears in some dictionaries. The abbreviated form ''&c.'' or ''&c'' is still occasionally used—the

ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the grammatical conjunction, conjunction "and". It originated as a typographic ligature, ligature of the letters of the word (Latin for "and"). Etymology Tradi ...

⟨&⟩, derives from a ligature of . 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. on our menu. In this case of a use at the end of a list without conjunction, a comma is typically written in front of the phrase (but see

Serial comma The serial comma (also referred to as the series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma) is a comma placed after the second-to-last term in a list (just before the conjunction) when writing out three or more terms. For example, a list of three c ...

). If etc. is used at the end of a sentence, the dot is not doubled. If it occurs at the end of exclamations, questions or a clause, the dot is not suppressed but followed by whatever punctuation marks are required to end or continue the sentence. Et cetera r rotunda

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter or black-letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule or Gothic type, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for ...

(Gothic or Fraktur) typography, the

r rotunda The r rotunda ⟨ ꝛ ⟩, "rounded r", is a historical calligraphic variant of the minuscule (lowercase) letter Latin ''r'' used in full script-like typefaces, especially blackletters. Unlike other letter variants such as "long s" which o ...

⟨ꝛ⟩ is sometimes used for ''et'' in place of the similar-looking

Tironian et Tironian notes () are a form of thousands of signs that were formerly used in a system of shorthand (Tironian shorthand) dating from the 1st century BCE and named after Tiro, a personal secretary to Marcus Tullius Cicero, who is often credited ...

⟨⁊⟩, followed by ''c'', to yield ''ꝛc''.

Similar Latin expressions

* In lists of people, (abbreviated as ''et al.'', meaning "and others") is used in place of ''etc.'' * In lists of places, may be used, which is also abbreviated ''et al.''; means "and elsewhere". * In references to literature or texts in general, or 'and the words etc. following' (abbreviated ''et seq.'', plural ''et seqq.'') are used to indicate that only the first portion of a known reference is given explicitly, with broad reference to the following passages which logically follow in sequence to the explicit reference. Hence "Title VII, Section 4, Subsection A, Paragraph 1, ''et seq.''" might refer to many subsections or paragraphs which follow Paragraph 1.

Legal brief A brief (Old French from Latin ''brevis'', "short") is a written legal document used in various legal adversarial systems that is presented to a court arguing why one party to a particular case should prevail. In England and Wales (and other Co ...

s and legislative documents make heavy use of ''et seq.'' Notice that there is a functional difference between ''et seq.'' and ''etc.'' Et seq. and its variations refer specifically to known text; etc. may do so too, but is more likely to leave the reader to supply the unspecified items for themself. It would not be helpful to say: "Various paragraphs of import similar to those in Title VII, Sections 4, 7, and 2 ''et seq.''" though it might make sense to use ''etc.'' in such a context.

In popular culture

In the 1956 film '' The King and I'',

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner (), was a Russian-born actor. He was known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in the Rodgers and Hammerstein stage musical ''The King and I'' (19 ...

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. 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."

Other uses

''Et cetera'' and derivatives such as ''etceteras'', have long been used airily, humorously or dismissively, often as a cadigan. For example: * ... he still wanted numberless appendages to make him a fine gentleman, such as a fashionable tailor and hairdresser, an unblushing confidence, together with a long train of etceteras. These fashionable introductories being wanting, Mr Whitmore was obliged to find a substitute... (1823) * The cost of the locomotives and their etceteras, is to be $136000 – their wear and tear $75600. Etceteras $90000... (1834) * The etceteras: asteroids, comets and interplanetary dust are chemically speaking, "impurities" and are just a minuscule fraction of planetary matter. (1989) * Having tried "to recover myth outside the books," the hidalgo crosses paths with common sense, everyday toils, and the religious dictates of the Counter-Reformation on a journey that tries to rescue chivalric etceteras of old. (2008) /etc is a directory in

UNIX-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X, *nix or *NIX) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Uni ...

operating systems, responsible mainly for storing system-wide configuration files, preferences, etc.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Latin words and phrases

Spelling and usage

Similar Latin expressions

In popular culture

Other uses

See also

References