Online Etymology Dictionary

-centric: from Gk. kentrikos "pertaining to a center," from kentron (see center).
-cide: "killer," from Fr. -cide, from L. -cida "cutter, killer, slayer," from -cidere, comb. form of caedere "to strike down, chop, beat, hew, fell, slay," from PIE *kae-id-, from base *(s)k(h)ai- "to strike" (Pokorny, not in Watkins; cf. Skt. skhidati "beats, tears," Lith. kaisti "shave.") For L. vowel change, see acquisition. The element also can represent "killing," from Fr. -cide, from L. -cidium "a cutting, a killing."
-cracy: comb. element forming nouns meaning "rule or government by," from Fr. -cratie or M.L. -cratia, from Gk. -kratia "power, might; rule, sway; power over; a power, authority," from kratos "strength," from PIE *kratus "power, strength" (see hard). The connective -o- has come to be viewed as part of it. Productive in English from c.1800.
-cy: abstract noun suffix of quality or rank, from L. -cia, -tia, from Gk. -kia, -tia, from abstract ending -ia + stem ending -c- or -t-. The native correspondents are -ship, -hood.
C: third letter of the alphabet. Alphabetic writing came to Rome via the southern Etruscan "Caeretan" script, in which gamma was written as a crescent. Early Romans made little use of Gk. kappa and used gamma for both the "g" and "k" sounds, the latter more frequently, so that the "k" sound came to be seen as the proper one for gamma. To restore a dedicated symbol for the "g" sound, a modified gamma was introduced c.250 B.C.E. as G. In classical Latin -c- has only the value "k," and thus it passed to Celtic and, via Irish monks, to Anglo-Saxon, where -k- was known but little used. In O.Fr., many "k" sounds drifted to "ts" and by 13c., "s," but still were written with a -c-. Thus the 1066 invasion brought to the Eng. language a more vigorous use of -k- and a flood of Fr. and L. words in which -c- represented "s" (e.g. cease, ceiling, circle). By 15c. native English words with -s- were being respelled with -c- for "s" (e.g. ice, mice, lice). In some words from Italian, meanwhile, the -c- has a "ch" sound (a sound evolution in Italian that parallels the O.Fr. one).
C.E.: as an abbreviation for "Common Era" or "Christian Era," and a non-Christian alternative to A.D., attested from 1838 in works on Jewish history. Companion B.C.E. is attested from 1881.
C.O.D.: abbreviation of cash on delivery, 1859, originally Amer.Eng.
c/o: addressing abbreviation for care of, "common" by 1889.
ca.sa.: abbreviation of capias ad satisfaciendum, a writ issued upon a judgment in a personal action for the recovery of money (see capias).
cab: 1826, "light, horse-drawn carriage," shortening of cabriolet (1763), from Fr. cabriolet (18c.), dim. of cabrioler "leap, caper" (16c./17c.), from It. capriolare "jump in the air," from L. capreolus "wild goat, roebuck." The carriages had springy suspensions. Extended to hansoms and other types of carriages, then extended to similar parts of locomotives (1859). Applied especially to public horse carriages, then to automobiles-for-hire (1899) when these replaced them. Cabby/cabbie is from 1859 (see taxi).
cabal: 1520s, "mystical interpretation of the Old Testament," later "society, small group meeting privately" (1660s), from Fr. cabal, in both senses, from M.L. cabbala (see cabbala). Popularized in English 1673 as an acronym for five intriguing ministers of Charles II (Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley, and Lauderdale), which gave the word its sinister connotations.
cabala: 1670s, variant of cabbala. Related: Cabalist.
caballero: 1877, "a Spanish gentleman," from Sp., from L. caballarius, from caballus "a pack-horse, nag, hack." "Not a native Lat. word (as the second -a- would show), though the source of the borrowing is uncertain" [Tucker]. Equivalent of Fr. chevalier, It. cavaliere (cf. cavalier).
cabana: 1898, western U.S., from Amer.Sp. cognate of cabin (q.v.).
cabaret: 1650s, from Fr. cabaret, lit. "tavern" (13c.), probably from M.Du. cambret, from O.Fr. (Picard dialect) camberete, dim. of cambre "chamber" (see chamber). Came to mean "a restaurant/night club" 1912; extension of meaning to "entertainment, floor show" is 1922.
cabbage: mid-15c., caboge, from M.Fr. caboche "head" (in the Channel Islands, "cabbage"), from O.Fr. caboce "head," from L. caput "head" (see head). Introduced to Canada 1541 by Jacques Cartier on his third voyage. First written record of it in U.S. is 1660s. The decline of "ch" to "j" in the unaccented final syllable parallels the common pronunciation of spinach, sandwich, Greenwich, etc.
cabbala: 1520s, from M.L. cabbala, from Mishnaic Heb. qabbalah "reception, received lore, tradition," especially "tradition of mystical interpretation of the Old Testament," from qibbel "to receive, admit, accept." Cf. Arabic qabala "he received, accepted."
caber: pole used in housebuilding, especially as an object tossed in the Highland games, 1510s, from Gael. cabar "pole, spar," cognate with Irish cabar "lath," Welsh ceibr "beam, rafter."
cabernet: family of grapes, or wine made from them, 1833, from Fr. Supposedly the best of them, cabernet sauvignon attested from 1846.
cabin: mid-14c., from O.Fr. cabane "hut, cabin," from O.Prov. cabana, from L.L. capanna "hut" (cf. Sp. cabana), of doubtful origin. Fr. cabine (18c.), It. cabino are English loan-words. Meaning "room or partition of a vessel" is from late 14c. Cabin fever first recorded by 1918 in the "need to get out and about" sense; earlier (1820s) it was a term for typhus.
cabinet: 1540s, from M.Fr. cabinet "small room" (16c.), dim. of O.Fr. cabane "cabin" (see cabin); perhaps influenced by (or rather, from) It. gabbinetto, dim. of gabbia, from L. cavea "stall, stoop, cage, den for animals." Sense of "private room where advisors meet" (c.1600) led to modern political meaning (1640s); cf. board in its evolution from place where some group meets to the word for the group that meets there.
cable: c.1200, from O.N.Fr., from M.L. capulum "lasso, rope, halter for cattle," from L. capere "to take, seize" (see capable). Technically, in nautical use, a rope 10 or more inches around (smaller ones being hawsers); in non-nautical use, a rope of wire (not hemp or fiber). Given a new range of senses in 19c.: Meaning "message received by telegraphic cable" is from 1883 (short for cable message). As a verb, "to tie up with cables" is from c.1500; "to transmit by cable" is 1871, Amer.Eng. Cable car is from 1887. Cable television first attested 1963; shortened form cable is from 1972.
cablese: 1895, from cable in the telegraphic sense + -ese as a language name suffix. "Since cablegrams had to be paid for by the word and even press rates were expensive the practice was to affix Latin prefixes and suffixes to make one word do the work of several" [Daniel Schorr], such as exLondon and Londonward to mean "from London," "to London."
cabochon: 1570s, from Fr. cabochon (14c.), augmentative of caboche (12c.), augmentative or pejorative formation, ultimately from L. caput "head." Essentially the same word as cabbage.
caboodle: c.1848, see kit.
caboose: 1747, "ship's cookhouse," from M.Du. kambuis "ship's galley," from Low Ger. kabhuse "wooden cabin on ship's deck;" probably a compound whose elements correspond to English cabin and house. Railroading sense is by 1859.
cabriolet: "light two-wheeled chaise," 1766, from Fr. cabriolet (18c.), derivative of cabriole (see cab). So called from its light, leaping motion.
caca: "excrement," a nursery word but a very ancient one (PIE *kakka-), forming the base word for "excrement, to void excrement" in many I.E. languages; e.g. Gk. kakke "human excrement," L. cacare, Ir. caccaim, S.Cr. kakati, Armenian k'akor. Etymologists dispute whether the Gmc. words (Du. kakken, Dan. kakke, Ger. kacken; O.E. cac-hus "latrina"), are native cognates or student slang borrowed from L. cacare. The word in this form appears in English slang c.1870, and could have been taken from any or several of the languages that used it (Sp., Mod.Gk.).
cacao: seed from which cocoa and chocolate are made, 1550s, from Sp. cacao, from Nahuatl (Aztec) cacaua, root form of cacahuatl "bean of the cocoa-tree."
cacciatore: by 1973, from It., lit. "hunter," from pp. of cacciare "to hunt, chase," from V.L. *captiare (see catch).
cache: 1797, "hiding place," from Fr. Canadian trappers' slang, "hiding place for stores" (1660s), a back formation from Fr. cacher "to hide, conceal" (13c., O.Fr. cachier), from V.L. *coacticare "store up, collect, compress," freq. of L. coactare "constrain," from coactus pp. of cogere "to collect" (see cogent). Sense extended by 1830s to "anything stored in a hiding place."
cache-sexe: 1926, from Fr., from cacher "to hide" + sexe "genitals" (fem.).
cachectic: 1630s, ult. from Gk. kakhektikos "in a bad habit of body" (see cachexia).
cachet: 1630s, Scottish borrowing of Fr. cachet "seal affixed to a letter or document" (16c.), from O.Fr. dialectal cacher "to press, crowd," from L. coactare "constrain" (see cache). Meaning evolving through "(letter under) personal stamp (of the king)" to "prestige." Cf. Fr. lettre de cachet "letter under seal of the king."
cachexia: "bad general state of health," 1540s, from Mod.L. cachexia, from Gk. kakhexia "bad habits," from kakos "bad" + -exia, related to exis "habit or state," from exein "to have, be in a condition," from PIE base *segh- "to hold, hold in one's power, to have" (see scheme). Related: cachexic.
cachinnate: "to laugh loudly or immoderately," 1824, from L. cachinatum, pp. of cachinnare (see cachinnation).
cachinnation: "loud laughter," 1620s, from L. cachinnationem (nom. cachinatio), noun of action from cachinnare "to laugh immoderately or loudly," of imitative origin. Cf. Skt. kakhati "laughs," Gk. kakhazein "to laugh loudly," O.H.G. kachazzen, Eng. cackle, Arm. xaxanc'.
cack: "act of voiding excrement; to void excrement," mid-15c., from L. cacare (see caca).
cackle: early 13c., imitative (see cachinnation).; perhaps partly based on M.Du. kake "jaw." As a noun, from 1670s. Cackleberries, slang for "eggs" is first recorded 1880.
caco-: before vowels, cac-, prefix meaning "bad, ill, poor," from Gk. kako- a common prefix in Gk., from kakos "bad, evil," considered by etymologists to probably be connected with PIE *kakka- "to defecate" (see caca). E.g. cacography, the opposite of calligraphy.
cacoethes: "itch for doing something," 1560s, from L., from Gk. kakoethes "ill-habit, wickedness, itch for doing (something)," from kakos "bad" + ethe- "disposition, character" (see ethos). Most famously, in Juvenal's insanabile scribendi cacoethes "incurable passion for writing."
cacoon: "large, flat bean from an African shrub," 1854, from some African word.
cacophony: 1650s, from Gk. kakophonia, from kakophonos "harsh sounding," from kakos "bad, evil" (see caco-) + phone "voice" (see fame). Related: Cacophonous.
cactus: c.1600, from L. cactus "cardoon," from Gk. kaktos, name of a type of prickly plant of Sicily (the Spanish artichoke), perhaps of pre-Hellenic origin. Modern meaning is 18c., because Linnaeus gave the name to a group of plants he thought were related to this but are not.
cad: 1730, shortening of cadet (q.v.); originally used of servants, then (1831) of town boys by students at British universities and public schools (though at Cambridge it meant "snob"). Meaning "person lacking in finer feelings" is from 1838.
"A cad used to be a jumped-up member of the lower classes who was guilty of behaving as if he didn't know that his lowly origin made him unfit for having sexual relationships with well-bred women." [Anthony West, "H.G. Wells: Aspects of a Life," 1984]
cadastral: 1858, from Fr. cadastral, from cadastre "register of the survey of lands" (16c.), from O.It. catastico, from Late Gk. katastikhos "register," lit. "by the line." Gamillscheg dismisses derivation from L.L. capitastrum "register of the poll tax."
cadaver: c.1500, from L. cadaver "dead body (of men or animals)," probably from a perf. part. of cadere "to fall, sink, settle down, decline, perish" (see case (1)). Cf. Gk. ptoma "dead body," lit. "a fall;" poetic English the fallen "those who died in battle."
cadaverous: "looking like a corpse," early 15c., from L. cadaverosus "corpse-like," from cadaver (see cadaver).
caddie: 1630s, Scottish form of Fr. cadet (see cadet). Originally "person who runs errands;" meaning of "golfer's assistant" is 1851. A letter from Edinburgh c.1730 describes the city's extensive and semi-organized "Cawdys, a very useful Black-Guard, who attend ... publick Places to go at Errands; and though they are Wretches, that in Rags lye upon the Stairs and in the Streets at Night, yet are they often considerably trusted .... This Corps has a kind of Captain ... presiding over them, whom they call the Constable of the Cawdys."
caddis: "larva of the May-fly," 1650s, of unknown origin, perhaps a dim. of some sense of cad.