Etcetera or Et Cetera?
Which is Right? Etcetera or Et Cetera?
I was wondering about this one and then I remembered that one semester of Latin that I took in college (not a fun class at all). In the true Latin sense, it should be “et cetera.”
Wikipedia says: The one-word spelling “etcetera” is commonly used and is accepted as correct by many dictionaries. It is also sometimes spelled et caetera, et coetera or et cœtera and is often abbreviated to etc.
It seems that people will mostly now write it as “etcetera” which kind of makes more sense since we’re not used to seeing “et” as a single word anywhere. For people to understand it all spelled out (instead of abbreviated, as it commonly is), it seems that “etcetera” is the norm.
Abbreviating Etcetera
This one irks me. I often see people write “ect.” What is that?? Are you saying “escetera” or “ecetera” or something like that? These are probably the same people that write “Opps” instead of “Oops” as well. Oh, and as long as we’re at it, it’s “espresso” not “expresso” – since I’m probably addressing the same group of people here, etc. 
Related Search Terms:
- etcetera or et cetera
- et cetera or etcetera
- etcetera vs et cetera
- ecsetera vs etcetera
- et cetera or
- is et cetera one word?
- what is correct? etcetera or et cetera
Ha ha, I’ve been trying to figure out which is more correct myself. I usually just use its abbreviation (etc.) but Word frowns on that usage (I think).
Of course, one could always just use “and so forth” and be done with it!