ca3, ka (ka)

t. [Appar. a particular use, with only phrasal meaning, of ca2 or cal: see def.] A word of no definite individual meaning, occurring in the proverbial phrase ca me, ca thee (now also claw me, claw thee), help (or serve) me and I'll help you. Ca me, ca thee : conceale this from my wife, And I'll keep all thy knauery from thine vncle. T. Heywood , If you Know not me, ii. distinction of the k -sound from the g-sound, writing both cat, n. See coel . with the same character, C ; and when later they readopted cas (kä), n. A Babylonian measure of capacity, the distinction, instead of reducing C to its original value, identified with the Hebrew bath or ephah. and restoring k , they retained the k -value c, IMG:content-2856.png:[blocks in formation] Great as is the apparent difference between Greek and our C, it is due only to a shifting of the position of the angle made by the two component lines, and the rounding of this angle. The hard or k -sound which belonged to this character in early Latin belonged to it also in Anglo-Saxon (which, like Latin, made little or no use of ca. In dates, a contraction of Latin circa, about: as, ca. 1300, about 1300. C. A. An abbreviation of chief accountant, of controller of accounts, and in Great Britain of chartered accountant. Caaba, n. See Kaaba . caaing-whale (ka'ing-hwal), n . [Sc., caaing ( caa , drive) + whale ; because these whales can be driven like cattle.] A large round- headed cetacean, Globicephalus svineval , of the Globicephalus svineval , family Delphinidæ , resembling a a porpoise porpois in form, but of greater dimensions than those usually attained by the dolphin family, some- ti times reaching a length of upward of 20 feet. It especially resorts to the shores of the Orkney, Shetland, and Faroe islands, Iceland, etc., appearing in herds of from 100 to 1,000 individuals. Though closely related to the kill- ers of the genus Orca , caaing-whales are timid and inoffen- sive, feeding on small fish, mollusks, and especially cepha- lopods. Also ca'ing - whale . caama (kä'ma), n. 1. A name of a small South African fox, Vulpes caama .-2. A name of a large bubaline antelope, Alcelaphus caama , the hartbeest. k ). But this k -sound, as being a guttural or back-palatal mute, is particularly likely to be shifted forward along the tongue and to be changed into front-palatal and sibilant sounds, especially before vowels like e, i, y, which favor the front-palatal position. Hence it comes that e, still so written, is pronounced as 8 in English before e, i, y, and elsewhere ask. But this "soft" or sibilant e belongs to the French part of our language; the Anglo-Saxon c, when softened, gets the sound usually represented in English by ch, and is so written: for example, in chicken, cheese, church, birch, teach. (See ch, and a ibilation.) No word containing e pronounced & is of Anglo-Saxon origin, except a few mi pelled, as cinder for sinder, and once, twice, etc., pence, mice, etc., having -ce for original -es, -s. (See -cel,) For the sounds of ch, see ch. 2. As a numeral, in the Roman system, C stands for 100, and is repeated up to CCCC, 400 (fol lowed by D, 500). This symbol, originally, that is, the Greek theta (9), was afterward reduced to C and understood to stand for centum, a hundred. 3. As a symbol: (a) In music: (1) Used in English and German to designate the key-note of the natural scale. See natural and scale. (2) When placed on the staff immediately after the clef, a sign of common time, each measure containing 4 quarter notes or their equivalent. When a vertical line is drawn through it, it indicates all a breve time, each measure containing 2 or 4 half notes, played more quickly than in common time. (3) On the keyboard of the organ or pianoforte, the white key or next to the left of each group of two black keys. The middle C of the keyboard is a usual starting-point in the reckoning of both keys, tones, and notes; it is also known as alto C, or c '; the next C below is called tenor C, or e; the second C below, ba c, or C; and the next C above, treble C, or c", etc. The present pitch of middle C is from 250 to 265 vibrations per second; it is often theoretically fixed in Germany at 264, in England at 256, and in France at 251. About 1700 it was actually about 240, and in recent times as high as 275. The major scale of C, because it comprises all the white keys and none of the black ones, is taken as the normal or standard scale of the keyboard. (b) In the mnemonic names of moods of syllogism, the symbol of reduction per impo ibile. (c) In math., C is used to denote a constant of integration. See also 4, 2 (c), (d), (e), (d) In chem., the symbol for carbon. 4. As an abbreviation, c. or C. stands, in dental formulas of zoology (c.), for canine tooth; in United States money (c.), for cent; in thermometer-readings (C.), for centigrade; in French money (c.), for centime; in references (c.), for chapter (or Latin capitulum ); in dates, before the number (c.), for Latin circa, about; in meteorology (c.), for cirrus; in a ship's log-book (c.), for cloudy; and in measures of volume (c.), for cubic.- Middle C, in music, the note on the first leger-line above the ba or below the treble staff. (See above.)