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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"?
editI 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>.)
- —RuakhTALK 14:56, 29 August 2012 (UTC)