"C" Word Origins

cusper

Origin

From cusp + -er.

cuspid

Origin

From Latin cuspid-, stem of cuspis (“point, apex”). Doublet of cusp and cuspis.

cuss

Origin

An American English variant pronunciation of curse.

custard

Origin

An altered form of the older word croustade, referring originally to a pie with a crust.

custodial

Origin

From custody + the adjective-forming suffix -al.

custodian

Latin

From Latin custodia, "a keeping, guard," from custos, "a keeper or guard."

custody

Latin

From Latin custodia, "a keeping, guard, prison," from custos, "a keeper."

custom

Latin

From Anglo-Norman custume, from Latin consuetudinem, "an accustomed way," from con- + suescere, "to become accustomed." A doublet of "costume" and "consuetude."

customary

Medieval Latin

From Medieval Latin custumarius, from custom + the adjective ending -ary.

customer

Old French

From Old French coustumier, "a toll-gatherer," from custom, "a tax or duty" — originally someone who collected customs duties, later shifted to mean a regular buyer.

customize

English

Formed from custom (in the sense 'made to order') plus the verb-forming suffix -ize.

customs

Origin

The plural of custom, in its older sense of "toll" or "tax."

cut

Middle English

From Middle English cutten, likely of North Germanic origin, related to Old Norse words for cutting or carving with a knife.

cutback

Origin

Deverbal from cut back.

cute

Origin · 1800

A shortened form of "acute," originally meaning "sharp-witted"; the meaning shifted in 19th-century American slang to "pretty" and "endearing."

cuteness

Origin

From cute + the noun-forming suffix -ness.

cutesy

Origin

From cute + the informal suffix -sy.

Cuthbert

Old English

Name of early English saints, from Old English Cūþbeorht (“brightly known, famous”).

cutie

Origin

From cute + the diminutive suffix -ie.

cutlass

Old French

From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel, "knife," with an augmentative ending meaning roughly "big knife."

cutler

Latin

From Anglo-Norman cuteler, going back to Old French coutelier ("knife-maker"), ultimately from Latin culter ("knife").

cutlery

Old French

From Old French coutelerie, the trade of a coutelier (cutler, or knife-maker).

cutlet

Latin

From French côtelette, "little rib," from Old French coste ("rib"), from Latin costa. English spelling was later reshaped under the influence of the unrelated word "cut."

cutline

Origin

From cut + line.

cutoff

Origin

A compound of cut and off, describing something that has been cut short or that marks a stopping point.

cutpurse

Origin

From Middle English cutte-purs; equivalent to cut + purse: originally, purses were worn by a strap at the girdle, which the thief would cut.

cutter

Middle English

From Middle English cuttere, formed from cut plus the agent suffix -er.

cutthroat

Origin

A compound of cut and throat, originally describing someone literally willing to slit a throat — a murderer or assassin — before it softened into today's figurative sense of ruthless competition.

cutting

Origin

Formed from cut plus the suffix -ing.

cuttlefish

Origin

From cuttle (an old word for the animal, of uncertain origin) plus fish.

cuttoe

Origin

From French couteau.

cutty

Origin

From cut plus the adjectival suffix -y, meaning literally "cut short."

cutup

Origin

Deverbal from cut up.

cuz

Origin

A clipped, informal spelling of cousin.

Cuzco

Spanish

Borrowed from Spanish Cuzco, from Quechua Qusqu.

CVS

English

The retail chain's name comes from Consumer Value Stores. The medical and computing senses are separate initialisms of chorionic villus sampling and Concurrent Versions System.

cwm

Origin

Unadapted borrowing from Welsh cwm (“valley”). Doublet of combe.

cwtch

Origin

From Welsh cwtsh (“hug, cuddle; little corner, recess”), from Middle English couche. Doublet of couch.

CX

English

An abbreviation in which x stands in for the rest of the word, on the pattern of UX and DX.

cyan

Origin

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek κύανος (kúanos), a shade of blue variously described as similar to cornflower, copper carbonate, and lapis lazuli, Mycenaean Greek 𐀓𐀷𐀜 (ku-wa-no), possibly from Hittite [script needed] (kuwannan-, “a precious stone; copper; shade of blue”). Compare modern Greek κυανός (kyanós), also used for cyan.

cyanide

Russian

From cyan- (referring to the blue pigment Prussian blue, in which the compound was first identified) plus the chemical suffix -ide.

cyber

Ancient Greek

Clipped from cybernetics, which itself comes from Ancient Greek kubernetes ("steersman, pilot") — the same root as "govern."

cyberman

Origin

Blend of cybernetic + man, analyzable as cyber- + man. Originally a race of extraterrestrial enemies in the long-running British television series Doctor Who, first appearing in the 1966 serial The Tenth Planet.

cybernetic

Ancient Greek · 1948

From Ancient Greek kubernetikos ("good at steering"), the same root that gives us "govern"; first used in English in 1948.

cyberpunk

Origin

From cyber- + -punk, coined by American writer and software developer Bruce Bethke as the title of a 1983 short story, and later popularized by Gardner Dozois.

cyberself

Origin

From cyber- + self.

cyberspace

Origin · 1982

Coined by science-fiction writer William Gibson, blending cybernetics and space, first in his 1982 short story collection Burning Chrome and popularized in his 1984 novel Neuromancer.

Cybill

Origin

A 20th-century variant of Sybil or Sibyl.