Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary -- Volume C

-- C --

C. (sē)

1. 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 Γ, γ, and came from the Greek alphabet. The Greeks got it from the Phœnicians. 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.

See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 221-228.

2. (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); for alla breve time it is written ?. (c) The "C clef," a modification of the letter C, placed on any line of the staff, shows that line to be middle C.

3. 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.

Ca·a"ba (k·ā"b), n. [Ar. ka'bah, lit., a square building, fr. ka'b cube.] The small and nearly cubical stone building, toward which all Mohammedans must pray. [Written also kaaba.]

The Caaba is situated in Mecca, a city of Arabia, and contains a famous black stone said to have been brought from heaven. Before the time of Mohammed, the Caaba was an idolatrous temple, but it has since been the chief sanctuary and object of pilgrimage of the Mohammedan world.

Caas (käs), n. sing. & pl. Case. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Caa·tin"ga (?), n. [Tupi caa-tinga white forest.] (Phytogeography) A forest composed of stunted trees and thorny bushes, found in areas of small rainfall in Brazil.