C words

In the book The Professor and the Madman, Simon Winchester tells us when the makers of OED got to the letter C it freaked them out so badly they nearly gave up because there are so many. These guys are impressive language geniuses and they had no idea the category C is so large, they figured S would be the largest so when the research went on and on and on, uncovering more C words and bogging down seriously it endangered the project ever getting done. It was overwhelming. Since then C freaks me out too.  This might be big. 

     * C Sign words. Another list of C words in ASL pulled from an online dictionary used to double check, all these words are common. 

     *ça ne fait rien: never mind   

     *Ça plane pour moi: that smooth, sails, glides flies, for me. This song is now playing in two commercials presently, Fitbit, Johnny Walker also movies, Wolf of Wall Street, We'll Never Have Paris, Ruby Sparks, Eurotrip, Beerfest, 127 Hours, Jackass 3.5, Gossip Girl, and another Pepsi commercial.  

* cabbotage:  transport of goods or passengers between two places in the same country by a transport operator from another country.    

* cablinasian: It goes back to April 1997 when he famously took a nine-iron to the face of blacks by telling Oprah Winfrey on her couch that he wasn’t black. He said he wasn’t white, either. He said, given that his father is black and that his mother is Asian, he spent his youth inventing a word for himself called “Cablinasian.” Just like that, in the hearts of many African-Americans, Woods was on his own.

* cadenza: a brilliant solo passage occurring near the end of a piece of music, in the armed services, a military cadence or cadence call is a traditional call-and-response work song sung by military , cadenza is a mixed a cappella choir at Cambridge University in the UK. Originally founded in 1997 as a small jazz choir with a conductor and a band, in 2002 it was changed to a smaller close-harmony a cappella group to sing arrangements that include a wider repertoire ranging from pop to jazz ...personnel while running or ...In music, a cadenza (from cadenza, meaning cadence) is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist ...
     

* calenture A tropical fever once believed to be caused by the heat. Amulets and incantations may be needed to purge so ghostly a calenture. [Spanish calentura, from calentar, to heat, from Latin calns, calent-, present participle of calre, to be warm;]     

* calliope: A calliope is a musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or more recently compressed air, through large whistles, originally locomotive whistles.

A calliope is typically very loud. Even some small calliopes are audible for miles around. There is no provision for varying the tone or loudness. The only expression possible is the timing and duration of the notes. The name originates from the name of Calliope, pronounced /kəˈlaɪ.əpiː/, from the Greek for beautiful voiced. In Greek mythology, Calliope was a daughter of Zeus, chief of the Muses and mother of Orpheus. The pronunciation of the instrument name varies, often pronounced /ˈkæli.oʊp/ with the stress on the first and last syllables. The steam calliope is also known as a steam organ or steam piano. The air-driven calliope is sometimes called a calliaphone, the name given it by its inventor, however the Calliaphone name is registered by a particular manufacturer.

     

* callipygian: having finely developed buttocks; "the quest for the callipygian ideal" The Callipygian Venus or Venus Kallipygos, (Ἀφροδίτη Καλλίπυγος Aphrodite Kallipygos, "Aphrodite of the Beautiful Buttocks" ), is a type of nude female statue of the Hellenistic era. ...
      

* callithumpian: noisy parade     

* calque: to borrow a word or phrase from another language while translating its components so as to create a new lexeme in the target language. itself is a loanword from a French noun, and derives from the verb "calquer" ("to trace", "to copy")    

* calumny: a misrepresentation intended to harm another's reputation, the act of uttering false charges or misrepresentations maliciously calculated to harm another's reputation   

* campanology: the art of bell ringing     

* canard: unfounded rumor or story, small winglike projection attached to an aircraft to provide extra stability or control sometimes replacing a tail.      

* cannulated: cannulated cow, hole in its side to study.     

* Capezio slipper: dance shoe      

* Capo di tutti capi: boss of all bosses    

* capriccio: instrumental composition that doesn't adhere to rules for any specific musical form and is played with improvisation,  caprice (sometimes plural: caprices, capri or, in Italian, capricci), is a piece of music, usually fairly free in form and of a lively character. The typical capriccio is one that is fast, intense, and often virtuosic in nature. painting, a capriccio is an architectural fantasy, placing together buildings, archaeological remains and/or other architectural elements in ... the final opera by German composer Richard Strauss, subtitled "A Conversation Piece for Music", landscape painting that places particular works of architecture in an unusual setting; A piece of music, usually fairly free in form.      

* carbuncular: extensive skin eruption, similar to but larger than a boil, with several openings: caused by staphylococcal infection, (of buildings) ugly, a rounded gemstone, esp a garnet cut without facets, a dark reddish-greyish-brown color      

* carillion: set of bells hung in a bell tower, a recitation with orchestral accompaniment written by the English composer Edward Elgar as his Op. 75, in 1914, former provincial electoral division in Manitoba, Canada. a musical instrument (usually housed in the bell towers of church towers, belfries, or in municipal buildings)     

* carrel: A small cubicle with a desk for the use of a reader or student in a library. A small enclosure or study in a cloister

     

* Carrington event: Refers to a massive ejection of plasma that hits the earth’s magnetic field.  British astronomer Richard Carrington observed such an event in 1859.  When the plasma hit the earth, the auroras stretched from the polar areas to close to the equators.  The telegraph system was strongly affected.  The problem with such an event happeneing today is that society is far more dependednt on networks that would are more vulnerable to serious (and often permanent) damage from an event of this magnitude.  Primarily the electrical grid.     

     * cartographic      

* casque: French for helmet. Enlargment on upper mandible of the bill of some species of birds including many hornbills. Hornbill ivory. A large growth on the skulls of Cassowaries.     

     *cassoulet     

* catamite: Warren Cup (photo of early statue) depicting sexual intimacy between an "erastes" (a young man) or a "pederast" and his "eromenos" (his beloved boy) or "catamite"  Roman Ganymede as a puer delicatus, with the eagle of Jove In its modern usage the term catamite refers to the passive partner in anal intercourse. In its ancient usage a catamite (Latin catamitus) was a pubescent boy who was the intimate companion of a young man in ancient Rome, usually in a pederastic friendship. It was usually a term of affection and literally means "Ganymede" in Latin. It was frequently used as a term of insult. The word derives from the proper noun Catamitus, the Latinized form of Ganymede, the beautiful Trojan youth abducted by Zeus to be his companion and cupbearer. The Etruscan form of the name was Catmite, from an alternate Greek form of the name, Gadymedes. 

   

* catarrh: Excessive discharge or buildup of mucus in the nose or throat, associated with inflammation of the mucous membrane.     

* catpurse: pickpocket, cutpurse, dip (a thief who steals from the pockets or purses of others in public places)     

* caudillismo: a system of government by a caudillo. a state or government in which a caudillo exercises absolute power.     

* caudillo: Spanish word for "leader" usually describes a political-military leader at the head of an authoritarian power. The term translates into English as leader or chief, or more pejoratively as warlord, dictator or strongman. Caudillo was the term used to refer to the charismatic populist leaders among the people. Caudillos have influenced a sizable portion of the history of Latin America.

The term originally referred to military power: Indíbil and Mandonio, Viriathus, Almanzor (sometimes in the modern historiography), Don Pelayo and other fighters of the Reconquista, even Simón Bolivar, Francisco Franco, etc., but in Latin America another sense has developed: the liberal caudillo lawyer and politician Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was honored with the title "Caudillo of The Colombian People"  

[This finishes the "Ca..." words ]    

* celadon: the pottery's pale jade-green glaze coined by European connoisseurs of the wares. One theory is that the term first appeared in France in the 17th century and that it is named after the shepherd Celadon in Honoré d'Urfé's French pastoral romance, L'Astrée (1627), who wore pale green ribbons. (D'Urfe, in turn, borrowed his character from Ovid's Metamorphoses.) Another theory is that the term is a corruption of the name of Saladin, sent forty pieces of the ceramic to Nur ad-Din Zengi, Sultan of Syria.  Yet a third theory is that the word derives from the Sanskrit sila and dhara, which mean "stone" and "green" respectively.     

* celotex: Black fibrous board that is used as exterior sheathing     

    * censorious     

* centripetal: tending to move toward a center; "centripetal force" tending to unify, of a nerve fiber or impulse originating outside and passing toward the central nervous system; "sensory neurons"      

* cerastes:  "having horns"[1]) is a creature of Greek legend, a serpent that is incredibly flexible—so much so that it is said to have no spine. Cerastae can have either two large ram-like horns or four pairs of smaller horns. The cerastes hides its head in the sand with only the horns protruding out of the surface; this is meant to deceive other animals into thinking it is food. When the animal approaches the cerastes, the cerastes promptly kills it.

The legend is most likely derived from the habits of the horned viper, whose genus, Cerastes, is named after the mythological creature. They are desert-dwelling animals, which can have horn-like protrusions over their eyes, and are ambush predators, though not nearly large enough to take prey items much larger than a mouse or small lizard.     

* certiorari: a common law writ issued by a superior court to one of inferior jurisdiction demanding the record of a particular case     

* Ceteris paribus: with other things the same      

* chaebol:  family-controlled industrial conglomerate in South Korea     

     * chancellery     

* chandler: A dealer in supplies and equipment for ships and boats. A dealer in household items such as oil, soap, paint, and groceries.     

* Charcuterie: from chair 'flesh' and cuit 'cooked') is the branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, galantines, pâtés, and confit, primarily from pork. Charcuterie is part of the garde manger chef's repertoire. Originally intended as a way to preserve meats before the advent of refrigeration, they are prepared today for their flavors derived from the preservation processes.     

  

     *Chauncey Gardiner     

* chebs: Scottish, large breasts     

* cheeseparing: careful or stingy with money.     

     

     *chefs: this is a list of American chefs    

* chiasmus: inversion in the second of two parallel phrases. In rhetoric, chiasmus  "to shape like the letter Χ") is the figure of speech in which two or more clauses are related to each other through a reversal of structures in order to make a larger point; that is, the clauses display inverted parallelism.      

* chibbed: hit with a blunt object like a bottle or a bat.     

* chilblains: also known as pernio and perniosis)are a medical condition that is often confused with frostbite and trench foot. Chilblains are acral ulcers (that is, ulcers affecting the extremities) that occur when a predisposed individual is exposed to cold and humidity. The cold exposure damages capillary beds in the skin, which in turn can cause redness, itching, blisters, and inflammation.     

* chisasma: Anatomy A crossing or intersection of two tracts, as of nerves or ligaments. Genetics The point of contact between paired chromatids during meiosis, resulting in a cross-shaped configuration and representing the cytological manifestation of crossing over.     

     * chode     

* choropleth map: thematic map in which areas are shaded or patterned in proportion to the measurement of the statistical variable being displayed on the map, such as population density or per-capita income.     

* Christian councils: First, let’s loosely define Christian as anyone who believes in the Trinitarian formula outlined in the Council Of Nicea and the Council of Chalcedon (and perhaps also who holds to basic Christian soteriology as taught in the historical confessions such as the Westminster Confession of Faith, Canons of Dort, Heidelberg Catechism, or for my Roman Catholic readers, the Council of Trent).     

* chthonic: dwelling beneath the surface of the earth; "nether regions"
     

     * chyron      

   

* cimeter: large curved cooking knife.     

* circumvallate: "surround with a rampart or other fortification"     

     *cis normative     

*clerisy: distinct class of learned or literary people. Those who read for pleasure.      

     

     * climategate. debunking list, somebody's long look, probably Steyn, at debunking of troll hero Dr James E. Hansen scaremonger and doomsayer.  

     * cloaca      

    

* clotpole: "clot" meaning fool or oaf and "pole" referring to the male genitalia.     

* clunge: vagina, British anus.      

     

     * coccyx     

* cock of the walk: dominating person of any group.      

* codswallop: nonsense     

* cognomen: nickname     

* col legno battuto: col legno, col legno battuto (Italian for "hit with the wood"), an instruction to strike the string with the stick of the bow, rather than by drawing the hair of the bow across the strings. This results in a quiet but eerie percussive sound.     

* collocation: two or more words that often go together. These combinations just sound "right" to native English speakers, who use them all the time. On the other hand, other combinations may be unnatural and just sound "wrong".     

* colloquium: an academic meeting or seminar usually led by a different lecturer and on a different topic at each meeting      

* Comintern: also known as the Third International (1919–1943), was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919. The International intended to fight "by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State."     

   

     * comprised vs composed     

* conation: a term that stems from the Latin conatus, meaning any natural tendency, impulse, striving, or directed effort. It is one of three parts of the mind, along with the affective and cognitive. In short, the cognitive part of the brain measures intelligence, the affective deals with emotions and the conative takes those thoughts and feelings to drive how you act on them.     

* concatenation: a series of interconnected things or events      

    

     * conclusory: means something different to lawyers. To them it is dismissive, something that somebody concluded, and not necessarily any legal use as evidence.        

* concupiscence: sexual desire, or want for intimacy.     

* congeners: born together, with same race or kind. Several different meanings depending on the field. a minor chemical constituent that gives a wine or liquor its distinctive character, natural flavor parts in spirits. Made up of trace oils, esters and acids carried through the distillation process. Spirits distilled at higher proofs are practically free of congeners, whereas low proofs have a high concentration. Chemical compounds created during fermentation and distillation which provide to the whisky its character, its qualities… or its defects.    

* congeries: a disorderly collection; a jumble     

* congés: vacation      

* conker: seed of the horse chestnut     

* consiglieres: a position in the American Mafia. The word was popularized by Mario Puzo's novel The Godfather     

     * contingent 

* contraindicate: (of a condition or circumstance) Suggest or indicate that (a particular technique or drug) should not be used in the case in question      

  

     * contralto     

* contranym: A word that has two opposing meanings, such as cleave (“come together” or “split apart”).    

* contrapposto: counterpose. It is used in the visual arts to describe a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs. This gives the figure a more dynamic, or alternatively relaxed appearance.     

     * contretemps     

     * convocations     

      * copybook headings     

* Cordon sanitaire: quarantine line. in English is almost always metaphorical and political, and refers to attempts to prevent the spread of an ideology deemed unwanted or dangerous, such as the containment policy adopted by George F. Kennan against the Soviet Union.     

* coriolis: the Coriolis effect is an apparent deflection of moving objects when they are viewed from a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with anti-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right.     

   

corvée: a form of unpaid, unfree labor, which is intermittent in nature and for limited periods of time: typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state for the purposes of public works.     

* cosset: to pamper, a pet, especially a pet lamb.     

* costive: suffering from constipation    

* coterminous: having the same boundaries or extent in space, time, or meaning."the southern frontier was coterminous with the French Congo colony"     

* coxcomb: vain and conceited man; a dandy      

    

* crash blossoms: Violinist linked to JAL crash blossoms

(If this seems a bit opaque, and it should, the story is about a young violinist whose career has prospered since the death of her father in a Japan Airlines crash in 1985.)

  

* crepuscular: pertaining to twilight, esp. in dimness. Etymology: Latin crepusculum

     

* Crinoline: originally a stiff fabric with a weft of horse-hair and a warp of cotton or linen thread. The fabric first appeared around 1830, but by 1850, the word had come to mean a stiffened petticoat or rigid skirt-shaped structure of steel designed to support the skirts of a woman's dress into the required shape. In form and function it is very similar to the earlier farthingale.      

* crueller twist: pastry, rectangle with slit in center, ends tucked into slit.

* cui bono: who benefits?     

* culo: Spanish for ass     

* cumulate: accumulate: collect or gather; "Journals are accumulating in my office"; "The work keeps piling up" cumulative - accumulative: increasing by successive addition; "the benefits are cumulative"; "the eventual accumulative effect of these substances", cumulation - pile: a collection of objects laid on top of each other, cumulative - Incorporating all data up to the present; Having priority rights to receive a dividend that accrue until paid     

* Cupertino effect: Apple headquarters.  runaway spellchecking has been dubbed "the Cupertino effect," at least among writers and translators for the European Union. As Qaminante explains, the common misspelling of cooperation as cooperatino leads some spellcheckers to suggest a change to Cupertino.     

* cupidity: Excessive desire, especially for wealth; covetousness or avarice.    

* currycomb: A tool made of rubber or plastic with short "teeth" on one side, that slides onto the hand of the groom. It is usually the first tool used in daily grooming. The horse is rubbed or "curried" to help loosen dirt, hair, and other detritus, plus stimulate the skin to produce natural oils.      

* curtilage: legal term which delineates the land immediately surrounding a house or dwelling, including any closely associated buildings and structures,     

* cyclorama: a panoramic painting on the inside of a cylindrical platform, designed to provide a viewer standing in the middle of the cylinder with a 360° view of the painting. The intended effect is to make a viewer, surrounded by the panoramic image, feel as if they were standing in the midst of a historic event or famous place.    

   

* cynosure: something that strongly attracts attention by its brilliance, interest, etc.: the cynosure of all eyes.... "dog's tail," the constellation (now Ursa Minor) containing the North Star, the focus of navigation, from Gk. kynosoura, lit. "dog's tail," from kyon + oura "tail."     

* cystitis: urinary bladder inflammation that results from any one of a number of distinct syndromes. It is most commonly caused by a bacterial infection in which case it is referred to as a urinary tract infection.