Et cetera

Et cetera (in English; /ɛtˈsɛtərə/; Latin pronunciation: ), abbreviated to etc., etc, &c., or &c, is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean 'and other similar things', or 'and so forth'. Translated literally from Latin, et means 'and', while cētera means 'the rest'; thus the expression means 'and the rest (of such things)'. It is a calque of the Koine Greek καὶ τὰ ἕτερα kai ta hetera, 'and the other things'. (The more usual Greek form was και τα λοιπά καὶ τὰ loipa, 'and the remainder'.). Et cetera (in English; /ɛtˈsɛtərə/; Latin pronunciation: ), abbreviated to etc., etc, &c., or &c, is a Latin expression that is used in English to mean 'and other similar things', or 'and so forth'. Translated literally from Latin, et means 'and', while cētera means 'the rest'; thus the expression means 'and the rest (of such things)'. It is a calque of the Koine Greek καὶ τὰ ἕτερα kai ta hetera, 'and the other things'. (The more usual Greek form was και τα λοιπά καὶ τὰ loipa, 'and the remainder'.). The one-word spelling 'etcetera' appears in some dictionaries. The abbreviated form &c. or &c is still occasionally used (The ampersand character, &, derives from a ligature of et). 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. 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. 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.' 'Et cetera' and derivatives, such as 'etceteras', have long been, and still are, used airily, humorously or dismissively, often as a cadigan, for example: