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Et cetera

Et cetera (, ), abbreviated to etc. or et cet., is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean "and all the rest". The ampersand "&" is a ligature of "et", thus it can also be abbreviated &c. . Translated literally from Latin, can mean , while can mean ; thus, the expression translates to .

Et cetera is a calque (loanword/phrase) of the Koine Greek () meaning . The typical Modern Greek form is () .

Spelling and usage

The one-word spelling etcetera appears in at least one dictionary. The abbreviated form &c. or &c is still occasionally used—the ampersand ⟨&⟩, 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). 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.

In blackletter (Gothic or Fraktur) typography, the r rotunda ⟨ꝛ⟩ is sometimes used for et in place of the similar-looking Tironian et ⟨⁊⟩, 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 briefs 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 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

<code>/etc</code> is a directory in UNIX-like operating systems, responsible mainly for storing system-wide configuration files, preferences, etc.

See also

References