circa - c., ca., ca or cca. ?

[JohnSK]

Hi,

I am trying to find out which abbreviation for "circa" is used the most often. I would say it's cca., but a friend of mine told me that cca. is not used much in the English language. Is it true? What about other languages?

Sorry if it's a silly question :blush:

[User6060]

I would say c. or sometimes ca

[gigapixels Veteran]

As far as I've seen it's almost always c.

[linksta]

in germany, austria and swiss i think mostly be used ca.

[macstorm]

c. and/or ca. http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000060.htm

[tao muon]

c. and/or ca. http://englishplus.com/grammar/00000060.htm

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I concur.

Although I've never seen the point in abbreviating a 5 letter word....

Maybe in a text message where characters count, but really... why?

[ninjamunky]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Latin_phrases_(full)

Has a lot of Latin phrases and affirms "c. of ca."

[Matthew Kessanis]

Hey everyone, this is a great time to agree on an abbreviation, and propagate it.

I think "ca." is best, because "c." resembles century "C" or Centum.
"cca." is unnecessarily longer, and the two c's have different sounds (S and K), which takes a little longer for the reader to comprehend, despite the commonality of such paradoxes in everyday speech.

 

Let us from this point drive "ca." as the standard for "circa."

[Matthew Kessanis]

I completely agree with Tao Muon: "I've never seen the point in abbreviating a 5 letter word... Maybe in a text message where characters count".

 

I do find the abbreviation very convenient in database work when a date is approximate. It reduces the overall size of the database by 0 to 4 chars per row.

  9 chars:   1610-1700                vs.          9 chars:   1610-1700                               0 % reduction

12 chars:   ca.1610-1700           vs.        15 chars:   circa.1610-1700                   20 % reduction

15 chars:   ca.1610-ca.1700      vs.        21 chars:   circa.1610-circa.1700          29 % reduction

 

ca.1610 - 1700 is much simpler than (min: 1570, max: 1660) - 1700.

 

The concern one may have using the later expression is that circa is not a standardized tolerance (Such as +/- 50 years).

The precision of circa varies. As more distant periods are referred to, the precision decreases. As the range or span of the period increases, the precision of circa decreases.

 

When precision decreases, tolerance or uncertainty increases. (Inverse proportionality).

[Louisifer]

You revived an almost 10 year old thread.  

 

I've never written or abbreviated circa, I just use a Tilde (~) for estimation/around.

[firey]

4 hours ago, Louisifer said:

You revived an almost 10 year old thread.  

 

I've never written or abbreviated circa, I just use a Tilde (~) for estimation/around.

Same here for approximations