''Et Cetera'' ( or (proscribed) , ), abbreviated to ''etc.'', ''etc'', ''et cet.'', ''&c.'' or ''&c'' is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

expression that is used in English to mean "and other similar things", or "and so forth". Translated literally from

, means 'and', while means 'the rest'; thus the expression translates to 'and the rest (of such things)'. Et Cetéra is a

calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...

of the

Koine Greek Koine Greek (; Koine el, ἡ κοινὴ διάλεκτος, hē koinè diálektos, the common dialect; ), also known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-reg ...

() meaning 'and the other things'. The typical Modern Greek form is (), 'and the remainder'.

Spellings and usage

The one-word spelling "etcetera" appears in some dictionaries. The abbreviated form ''&c.'' or ''&c'' is still occasionally used (the

ampersand The ampersand, also known as the and sign, is the logogram , representing the conjunction "and". It originated as a ligature of the letters ''et''—Latin for "and". Etymology Traditionally in English, when spelling aloud, any letter tha ...

character, ''&'', 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 In English-language punctuation, a serial comma (also called a series comma, Oxford comma, or Harvard comma) is a comma placed immediately after the penultimate term (i.e., before the coordinating conjunction, such as ''and'' or ''or'') in a se ...

). 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. Et cetera r rotunda

blackletter Blackletter (sometimes black letter), also known as Gothic script, Gothic minuscule, or Textura, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century. It continued to be commonly used for the Danish, Norwe ...

(Gothic or Fraktur) typography, the " r rotunda" (ꝛ) is sometimes used for ''et'' in place of the similar-looking

Tironian et Tironian notes ( la, notae Tironianae, links=no) are a set of thousands of signs that were formerly used in a system of shorthand (Tironian shorthand) dating from the 1st century BCE and named after Tiro, a personal secretary to Marcus Tullius Ci ...

(⁊), followed by ''c'', to yield ''ꝛc''.

Similar Latin expressions

* In lists of people, ''et alii'' (abbreviated as ''et al.'', meaning "and others") is used in place of ''etc.'' * In lists of places, ''et alibi'' may be used, which is also abbreviated ''et al.''; ''et alibi'' means "and elsewhere". * In references to literature or texts in general, ''et sequentes (versus)'' or ''et sequentia'' '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 brief A brief (Old French from Latin "''brevis''", short) is a written legal document used in various legal adversarial systems that is presented to a court arguing why one party to a particular case should prevail. In England and Wales (and other Com ...

s 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 himself. 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 ''The King and I'' is the fifth musical by the team of Rodgers and Hammerstein. It is based on Margaret Landon's novel '' Anna and the King of Siam'' (1944), which is in turn derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, governess to the chil ...

'',

Yul Brynner Yuliy Borisovich Briner (russian: link=no, Юлий Борисович Бринер; July 11, 1920 – October 10, 1985), known professionally as Yul Brynner, was a Russian-born actor. He was best known for his portrayal of King Mongkut in th ...

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

"Et cetera" and derivatives, such as "etceteras", have long been, and still are, used airily, humorously or dismissively, often as a

cadigan Placeholder names are words that can refer to things or people whose names do not exist, are temporarily forgotten, are not relevant to the salient point at hand, are to avoid stigmatization, are unknowable/unpredictable in the context in wh ...

, for example: * ... he still wanted numberless appendages to make him a fine gentleman, such as a fashionable tailor and hairdresser, an unblushing confidence, together with a long train of etceteras. These fashionable introductories being wanting, Mr Whitmore was obliged to find a substitute... (1823) * The cost of the locomotives and their etceteras, is to be $136000 – their wear and tear $75600. Etceteras $90000... (1834) * The etceteras: asteroids, comets and interplanetary dust are chemically speaking, "impurities" and are just a minuscule fraction of planetary matter. (1989) * Having tried "to recover myth outside the books," the hidalgo crosses paths with common sense, everyday toils, and the religious dictates of the Counter-Reformation on a journey that tries to rescue chivalric etceteras of old. (2008) * /etc, a

directory Directory may refer to: * Directory (computing), or folder, a file system structure in which to store computer files * Directory (OpenVMS command) * Directory service, a software application for organizing information about a computer network' ...

(aka "folder") in

UNIX-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...

s, responsible mainly for storing system-wide configuration files, preferences, etc.

In other languages

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

: ; also and . (abbreviation: ens.) * Albanian: (abbr.: etj.) *

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

: إلى آخره، إلخ (, ) * Armenian: և այլն () *

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

: (abbr.: və s.) or (abbr.: və s. və i.a.) * Basque: ''eta abar'' (abbr.: etab.) *

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: ইত্যাদি () or প্রভৃতি () is used for ''et cetera'' while "প্রমুখ" () is used for ''et alii'' * Bulgarian: и така нататък (abbr.: и т.н.) *

Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...

: ''etcètera'' (abbr.: etc.) * Chinese: 等 (''děng'') or "等等" (''děngděng'') * Czech: ''a tak dále'' (abbr.: atd.) * Danish: ''og så videre'' (abbr.: osv.) *

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''enzovoort'' or ''enzovoorts'' (abbr.: enz.) *

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communic ...

: ''kaj tiel plu'' (abbr.: ktp.) *

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also * ...

: ''ja nii edasi'' (abbr.: jne) * Faroese: ''og so framvegis'' (abbr.: osfr. or o.s.fr.) * Finnish: ''ja niin edelleen'' (abbr.: jne.) or "ynnä muuta sellaista" (abbr.: yms.) *

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

: ''et cetera'', ''et cætera'', or ''et caetera'' (abbr.: etc.) * Galician: ''e o demais'', or ''etcétera'' (abbr. etc.) * Georgian: და ასე შემდეგ (rom.: da ase shemdeg) (abbr.: და ა.შ.) *

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''usw.'' for ("and so forth"). *

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: και τα λοιπά (ke ta lipá, abbr.: κτλ.) *

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

: વગેરે *

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...

: καὶ τὰ ἕτερα (ke ta étera) *

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: (v'hulei, abbr.: ) or (v'hadomeh, abbr.: ) or וגומר (v'gomer, abbr.: וג') *

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: इत्यादि (''ityadi'') or वगैरा (''vagaira'') * Hungarian: ''és a többi'' (abbr.: stb.), ''és így tovább''; ''etc.'' is in regular use, too * Icelandic: ''og svo framvegis'' (abbr.: o.s.frv.) * Indonesian: ''dan lain-lain'' (abbr.: dll.), ''dan sebagainya'' (used for similar things; abbr.: dsb.), dan seterusnya (used for sequences; abbr.: dst.) * Irish: (abbr.: srl./⁊rl) *

isiXhosa Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...

: ''njalo-njalo'' *

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

: ''eccetera'', (abbr.: ecc. or etc.) * Japanese: "その他" (''sono ta'', ''sono hoka''), or suffix "等" (''tō'', ''nado'') or "など" (''nado''), "エトセトラ/えとせとら" (''etosetora'') *

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

: "ಇತರೆ" () or "ಇತ್ಯಾದಿ" () *

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

: "등/等"() or "기타/其他" () *

Kyrgyz Kyrgyz, Kirghiz or Kyrgyzstani may refer to: * Someone or something related to Kyrgyzstan *Kyrgyz people *Kyrgyz national games *Kyrgyz language *Kyrgyz culture *Kyrgyz cuisine *Yenisei Kirghiz *The Fuyü Gïrgïs language in Northeastern China ...

: жана башкалар (abbr.: ж.б.), дагы ушул сыяктуулар (abbr.: д.у.с.) * Lao: ຯລຯ (read as ແລະອຶ່ນໆ ''lɛ-ɯːn-ɯːn'') * Latvian: ''un tā tālāk'' (abbr.: utt.) * Lithuanian: ''ir taip toliau'' (abbr.: ir t.t.) *

Macedonian Macedonian most often refers to someone or something from or related to Macedonia. Macedonian(s) may specifically refer to: People Modern * Macedonians (ethnic group), a nation and a South Slavic ethnic group primarily associated with North Ma ...

: и така натаму (abbr.: итн.) * Malagasy: ''sy ny sisa'' (abbr.: sns.) *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

: തുടങ്ങിയവ (pronounced ''thudangiyava'') * Maltese: ''eċċetera'' (abbr.: eċċ.) * Marathi: इत्यादी (pron. ''ityadi'') * Mongolian: гэх мэт (abbr.: г.м.) *

Nepali language Nepali (; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Himalayas region of South Asia. It is the official, and most widely spoken, language of Nepal, where it also serves as a '' lingua franca''. Nepali has official status in the Indian s ...

: आदि, इत्यादि aadi * Norwegian (bokmål): ''og så videre'' (abbr.: osv.) *

Norwegian (nynorsk) Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

: ''og så bortetter'' (abbr.: osb.) or ''og så vidare'' (osv.) *

Odia Odia, also spelled Oriya or Odiya, may refer to: * Odia people in Odisha, India * Odia language, an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family * Odia alphabet, a writing system used for the Odia languag ...

: ''ଇତ୍ୟାଦି'' * Persian: وغیره () * Polish: ''i tak dalej'' (abbr.: itd.) * Portuguese: ''et cetera'' (abbr.: etc.) *

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

: ਆਦਿਕ (pron. aadik) and ਆਦਿ (pron. aadi) *

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

: ''și așa mai departe'' (abbr.: ș.a.m.d.), or ''și celelalte'' (abbr.: ș.cl.); the latter somewhat obsolete * Russian: и так далее (rom.: i tak daleje) (abbr.: и т.д.), or и тому подобное (rom.: i tomu podobnoje) (abbr.: и т.п.) *

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

: इत्यादिः (''ityaadih'') *

Serbo-Croatian Serbo-Croatian () – also called Serbo-Croat (), Serbo-Croat-Bosnian (SCB), Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian (BCS), and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian (BCMS) – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia an ...

: ''i tako dalje'' / и тако даље (abbr.: itd. / итд.) * Sesotho: ''jwalo-jwalo'' (abbr.: j.j.) * Slovak: ''a tak ďalej'' (abbr.: atď.) *

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes, an ethno-linguistic group mainly living in Slovenia * Sl ...

: ''in tako dalje'' (abbr.: itd.) *

Sorani Central Kurdish (), also called Sorani (), is a Kurdish dialect or a language that is spoken in Iraq, mainly in Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as the provinces of Kurdistan, Kermanshah, and West Azerbaijan in western Iran. Sorani is one of the two o ...

:هەتادوایی،هتد (''hata dwayy'', abbr.: htd) *

Somali Somali may refer to: Horn of Africa * Somalis, an inhabitant or ethnicity associated with Greater Somali Region ** Proto-Somali, the ancestors of modern Somalis ** Somali culture ** Somali cuisine ** Somali language, a Cushitic language ** Somali ...

:''Iyo wixii lamida'' (abbr.:IWM) *

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

: ''etcétera'' (abbr.: etc.) * Swahili: ''na kadhalika'' (abbr.: n.k.) * Swedish: ''och så vidare'' (abbr.: o.s.v.) *

Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog language, a language spoken in the Philippines ** Old Tagalog, an archaic form of the language ** Batangas Tagalog, a dialect of the language * Tagalog script, the writing system historically used for Taga ...

: ''at iba pa'' (abbr: atbp.) *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

: இன்ன பிற (pron. ''iṉṉa piṟa''), முதலியன (pron. ''muthaliyaṉa'') *

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

: "ఇతర", "ఇత్యాది", "మొదలగునవి" or "మొదలైనవి", "వగైరా"(pronounced as "ithara", "ithyaadhi", "modalagunavi" or "modhalainavi", "vagairaa") * Thai: ฯลฯ (This three-letter combination is not an abbreviation but a sign called ''ไปยาลใหญ่'' "paiyan yai". It is to be read ''และอื่นๆ'' "lae uen uen", or ''และอื่นๆ อีกมากมาย'' "lae uen uen ik mak mai", meaning "and others" or "and many others", respectively.) * Turkish: ''ve benzerleri'' (abbr.: vb.) or ''vesaire'' (abbr.: vs.) * Turkmen: we ''şuňa meňzeşler'' (abbr.: we ş.m.) *

Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...

: тощо (''toshcho'') *

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Uyghur: قاتارلىق * Vietnamese: ''vân vân'' (abbr.: v.v.) *

Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...

: ''ac yn y blaen'' (abbr.: ayyb) *

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...

: און אזוי ווייטער (rom. ''un azoy vayter'') (abbr.: )

References

External links

{{Wiktionary, et cetera
I.E., ETC., et al AND E.G. –Comparison, Difference

ईटीसी का अर्थ (ETC Full form)
Latin words and phrases