caret

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹ.ɪt/, /ˈkæɹ.ət/, /ˈkɛɹ.ɪt/, /ˈkɛɹ.ət/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæɹ.ɪt/, /ˈkæɹ.ət/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æɹɪt, -æɹət
• (weak vowel merger) Homophones: carat, karat, carrot

Etymology 1

From the Latin caret (“it lacks”), the third-person singular present active indicative form of careō (“I lack”).

Noun

caret (plural carets)

1. A mark ⟨ ‸ ⟩ used by writers and proofreaders to indicate that something is to be inserted at that point.
2. An exponentiation symbol or operator ⟨＾⟩.
3. (user interface) An indicator, often a blinking line or bar and usually called a cursor, indicating where the next insertion or other edit will take place.
4. (nonstandard) A circumflex ⟨ ˆ ⟩.
5. (nonstandard) A háček ⟨ ˇ ⟩.
   • 1944, Maro Beath Jones, “Inclusive Uniform Alphabet for Russian, Bulgarian, Serb-Croatian, Czech, Polish”, in Claremont Slavic Series, Claremont College, page 10:

     […] the more conventional semivocalic j and the caret (ˇ) respectively.

   • 1948, Bohumil Emil Mikula, Progressive Czech (Bohemian) (Chicago: Czechoslovak National Council of America), 6

     The caret (ˇ), háček, is used over the following consonants: c, d, n, t, r, s, and z to indicate the soft sound. The caret (ˇ) is also used over the vowel e (See Pronunciation II, b, p, v).

   • 1991, Michael Shapiro, The Sense of Change: Language as History, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 58, →ISBN:

     In contemporary Czech, the “hook” or caret is no longer in use for lower-case t and d when the latter are palatal; instead, an apostrophe is used (t’, d’) This development is clearly connected with the practical difficulty encountered in printing a caret over letter stems that are too thin.

Hyponyms

• inverted caret

Derived terms

• caret notation
• caretlike

Translations

symbol

• Esperanto: ĉapelo
• Finnish: sirkumfleksi (fi)
• French: circonflexe (fr)
• German: Einschaltungszeichen n, Zirkumflex (de) m, Dach (de) n
• Hungarian: hiányjel (hu), beszúrásjel, betoldásjel, beszúrási jel, háztető (hu), kalap (hu), hatványjel
• Malayalam: പാടിനി (pāṭini)
• Maori: hiwi, tohu hiwi
• Portuguese: acento circunflexo (pt) m
• Spanish: signo de intercalación m
• Turkish: düzeltme imi

Etymology 2

From French caret.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈɹɛt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

caret (plural carets)

1. (archaic) A kind of turtle, the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata).

References

• “caret”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Carte, Cater, Trace, acter, carte, cater, crate, creat, react, recta, reäct, trace

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ka.ʁɛ/

Etymology 1

Early borrowing from Spanish carey.

Noun

caret m (plural carets)

1. loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)

   Synonyms: caouanne, tortue carette

   • 1874, François P. L. Pollen, D. C. van Dam, Recherches sur la Faune de Madagascar et de ses dépendances, page 30:

     Dès qu’ils aperçoivent un caret ou une tortue franche, ils tachent de les avoir à portée et dans le moment favorable ils lancent avec une adresse étonnante un des harpons en visant sur la tête ou la queue pour ne pas dommager les plaques latérales; qui dans les carets font la valeur de l’animal.

     As soon as they spot a loggerhead turtle or a green sea turtle, they try to get it within range, and when the time is right they launch with astonishing dexterity one of the harpoons, aiming for the head or the tail so as not to damage the side plates, which in turtles the value of the animal is found.

2. hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata)

   Synonyms: tortue imbriquée, tortue à écailles

Etymology 2

From car +‎ -et.

Noun

caret m (plural carets)

1. spool, reel

   Synonym: dévidoir

   • 1979, Jean-Claude Dupont, Histoire populaire de l'Acadie, page 344:

     La pêcheur ligne sa ligne quand il la tire de l’eau et l’enroule sur le caret, dévidoir contenant normalement cinquante brasses (90 m) de ligne.

     The angler lines his line when he pulls it from the water and wraps it around the spool, a reel normally containing fifty fathoms (90 m) of line.

   • 1997, Maurice Desjardins, Faits et gestes à la grève du quai de Trois-Pistoles, 1696-1997, →ISBN, page 199:

     Le caret, sur lequel était enroulé la ligne, était attaché au bateau afin d’éviter qu’il ne tombe à l’eau.

     The spool, around which the line was wound, was attached to the boat to avoid it falling into the water.

   • 2007, Gérard Boutet, La France en héritage, →ISBN, page 399:

     Le fil obtenu était enroulé sur les carets.

     The thread obtained was wound around the spools.

2. yarn (thread of a rope)
   • 1829, Thomas Young, Résumé complet de mécanique et de la science des machines, page 140:

     Les cordes qui concourent à la formation d’un câble commun, prisés isolément, sont plus solides que le cable lui-meme, dans la proportion d’environ quatre à trois; on a trouvé qu’une corde travaillée avec des carets de cent quatre-vingts à cent trente-cinq verges de longueur, était plus solide que celle provenant de carets réduits à une dimension de cent vingt verges, dans la rapport de six à cinq.

     The ropes that contribute to a common cable, taken in isolation, are sturdier than the cable itself, in the ratio of about four to three; we have found that a rope worked of yarns of one-hundred-and-eighty to one-hundred-and-thirty-five yards in length, was sturdier than that made of threads reduced to a dimension of one-hundred-and-twenty yards, in the ratio of six to five.

   • 1873, Paul Poiré, La France Industrielle, page 439:

     Si, au contraire, l’ouvrier, tout en empêchant le toupin de tourner, l’éloigne de l’émerillon, la partie des carets comprise entre l’émerillon et le toupin devient moins tendue et les deux carets vont pouvoir se tordre l’un sur l’autre.

     If, on the other hand, the worker while preventing the top from turning removes it from the swivel, the part of the yarns between the swivel and the top becomes less taut and the two yarns can be twisted one over the other.

   • 1911, Paul Jacquemart, Joseph François Bois, Notions de technologie, page 384:

     Les carets devant produire un toron sont fixés par une de leurs extrémités au crochet de l’émerillon; l’autre extrémité de chacun d’eux est fixée à une molette pouvant lui transmettre par sa rotation un mouvement de torsion.

     The yarns, ahead of producing a strand of rope, are fixed by one of their ends to a hook on the swivel; the other end of each one is fixed to a wheel which can apply a twisting movement by its rotation.

Derived terms

• fil de caret

Etymology 3

Inherited from Latin carex.

Noun

caret m (plural carets)

1. (dated) carex, sedge

   Synonyms: carex, laîche, rouche, careiche

   • 1778, Jean-Baptiste de Monet de Lamarck, Flore françoise ou Description succincte de toutes les plantes, page 169:

     Les carets paroissent former le passage des graminées avec la famille des scirpes, des souchets et des joncs, à laquelle ils tiennent par plusiers rapports.

     The sedges appear to form the evolution of the grasses with the rushes, the chufas and the bulrushes, to which they are linked by several similarities.

   • 1839, Charles-Auguste Moisan, Flore nantaise, page 161:

     Plusiers espèces de Carets portent les noms vulgaires de ciseau, des feuilles à bords coupants, et de rouche, rouchette, et forment un fourrage grossier.

     Several species of sedges bear the common names of ciseau, their leaves having sharp edges, and rouche, rouchette, and they form a coarse forage.

   • 1886, Revue catholique de l'Alsace, volume 5:

     Les carets vivent dans les eaux très médiocres.

     Sedges live in very poor waters.

Etymology 4

Inherited from Latin caret (“it lacks”).

Noun

caret m (plural carets)

1. caret (symbol)
   • 2002, John C. Worsley, Joshua D. Drake, PostgreSQL par la pratique, →ISBN, page 163:

     Correspond à n’importe quel caractère ne faisant pas partie de ceux qui sont entre les crochets, après le caret (ici, tout caractère sauf a, b, et c).

     Corresponds to any character that is not part of those inside the brackets, after the caret (here, any character but a, b, or c).

   • 2003, Joey Lott, ActionScript en action, →ISBN, page 223:

     Tous les caractères et toutes les plages d’une chaîne restrict suivant le caret sont interdites.

     All the characters and ranges of a restrict string following the caret are forbidden.

   • 2013, Paul Durand Desgrandes, Tout sur ma tablette Samsung Galaxy (Tab 2 et Note 10.1) pour les Nuls, →ISBN:

     Pour ouvrir un menu, dessinez le symbole de caret ou accent circonflexe (^) tout en appuyant sur le bouton du stylet.

     To open a menu, draw the caret or circumflex accent (^) symbol while pressing the stylus button.

Further reading

• “caret”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• acter, carte, carté, créât, écart, terça, trace, tracé

Latin

Verb

caret

1. third-person singular present active indicative of careō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French caret.

Noun

caret m (plural careți)

1. hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata, a sea turtle)

Declension

Declension of caret

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(un) caret	caretul	(niște) careți	careții
genitive/dative	(unui) caret	caretului	(unor) careți	careților
vocative	caretule		careților

References

• caret in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Welsh

Alternative forms

• carit (literary)
• carset (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• (North Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkarɛt/
• (South Wales) IPA^(key): /ˈkaːrɛt/, /ˈkarɛt/

Verb

caret

1. second-person singular conditional colloquial of caru

Mutation

Welsh mutation
radical	soft	nasal	aspirate
caret	garet	ngharet	charet
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.