Talk:&c.

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Is this legitimate, or just someone goofing aroung with punctuation characters in a headword? --Connel MacKenzie T C 02:18, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

• This is fine (just a bit dated) SemperBlotto 07:21, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

• Noted as archaic. Added 4 quotes, from 1612 - 1977 (actually moved quotes from &c where I had previously put them, since they all used the "."). Then changed &c to a stub as "Alternative spelling of &c., rare except in titles" since that is the case (and it was fairly rare even in titles as far as I could tell from books.google. I think the advent of house styles reducing the used of "."s in abbreviations was a 20th century phenomenon.) --Enginear 12:31, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

• Agree with SemperBlotto and Enginear -- it's completely legitimate. I see this all the time in older works. (I even tend to use it myself, just for fun.) —Scs 16:32, 22 May 2006 (UTC)

the "pregnant et cetera"?

I have read a book entitled The Two Babylons, and in it, the author refers to '&c' as a pregnant et cetera, "used in situations where the 'etc.' covers a very large list" (to paraphrase his explanation). Can anyone confirm or deny the plausibility of that usage? Knowledge seeker 2.0 (talk) 10:23, 29 August 2012 (UTC)

You are completely misunderstanding him. In discussing this passage:

Then the priest that initiated them, called Ἱεροφαντης [the Hierophant], proposed certain questions, as, whether they were fasting, &c., to which they returned answers in a set form.

he writes:

The etcetera here might not strike a casual reader; but it is a pregnant etcetera, and contains a great deal.

So he's not saying that the notation &c. means, or always is, a pregnant etcetera; he's presupposing that it means, or is, an etcetera, and is saying that this specific instance is "pregnant".

(By the way, for anyone else reading this discussion, the full context is at <http://books.google.com/books?id=GooEAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA13&dq=etcetera>.)

—Ruakh_TALK 14:56, 29 August 2012 (UTC)