C • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • 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.

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Etymology of 'C'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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... modern references I have seen. Now Elder himself quotes Verstegan in his comments on the legend, pp. 168-9 and note, and it is impossible to avoid conjecturing that he adapted Verstegan to the locality. Newtown, when Hassel visited it in 1790, had only six or seven houses (l.c., i., 137-8), though it had the privilege of returning two members to Parliament; it had been a populous town by the name of Franchville before the French invasion of the island of temp. Ric. II. It is just possible that there may ...

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— Introduction to the Old Testament • John Edgar McFadyen

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... earliest Account of Time to the Present. Compiled from original Authors, and illustrated with Maps, Cuts, &c. ...

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