Word origins

• carphologiaPicking at bedding and clothing, or at the lips, or of perceived invisible objects.
• CarpoOne of the Horae, goddess/personification of Autumn and of harvest time.
• carpo-carpus (wrist) or hand.
• carpoliteA fossilised fruit, nut, or seed.
• -carpousHaving a specified number or type of fruit or fruiting bodies or part thereof.
• caryopiliteA monoclinic mineral containing arsenic, chlorine, hydrogen, iron, magnesium, manganese, oxygen, silicon, and zinc.
• CassanderA king (basileus) of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and de facto ruler of Southern Greece.
• cassiteriteA generally black mineral, composed of tin oxide, SnO₂, which is an important ore of tin.
• cata-down
• catabasionA vault under the altar of a Greek church.
• catachresticConstituting or related to catachresis.
• catachronismThe recharacterization of the present in terms of inexorable outcomes in the future.
• catachthonianof or relating to the underworld
• cataclasmA breaking apart; disruption.
• catacosmesisA descending order from best, greatest, etc. to worst, lowest, etc.
• catadromeA racecourse.
• catagelophobiaFear of being ridiculed
• cataglottismSynonym of French kiss: kissing involving the tongue.
• catagmaticHaving the quality of strengthening or consolidating broken bones.
• catallacticsA form of political economics based on the science of exchange.
• catalysizeTob accelerate (a process) by catalysis.
• catapasmA medicinal powder used by the ancients to sprinkle on ulcers, to absorb perspiration, etc.
• catapelticPertaining to a catapult or catapults.
• cataphaticPertaining to the expression of God in terms of what God is, rather than in terms of what God is not (apophatic).
• cataphoraThe use of a pronoun, or other linguistic unit, before the noun phrase to which it refers, sometimes used for rhetorical effect.
• cataphractDefensive armour covering the entire body of a soldier and often the soldier's horse as well, especially the linked mail or scale armour of some eastern nations.
• cataplerosisThe removal of intermediate metabolites, especially in the citric acid cycle, to prevent their accumulation in the mitochondrial matrix.
• cataplexisA rhetorical device in which a threat of retribution (especially of divine punishment) is made in response to wrongdoing.
• catastalticSynonym of peristaltic.
• catastasisIn classical drama, the second and penultimate section, in which action is heightened for the catastrophe.
• catasterismThe transformation of a hero or mythological creature, into a star, constellation, comet or other celestial object.
• catasterismusThe state of being transformed into a star, constellation, comet or other celestial object.
• catasterizeTo turn into a star, constellation, comet or other celestial object.
• catataxisA confusion between hierarchical levels; a two-way dependency relation, such as that between a subject and a finite verb.
• categiseThrash (verbally or physically).
• categorematicCapable of being employed alone as a term.
• cathecticOf or pertaining to a connection that is charged with emotional energy.
• cathereticA mild caustic used to reduce warts and other excrescences.
• cathexisThe concentration of libido or emotional energy on a single object or idea.
• catochusThe trance-like mental state of a cataleptic patient.
• catoecicSynonym of cleruchic.
• catopterA reflecting optical glass or instrument; a mirror.
• catoptricOf, relating to, or produced by mirrors or reflections.
• catoptromancyDivination by use of mirrors, or other reflective surfaces.
• catoptrophobiaThe fear of mirrors.
• Caucasian IberiaIberia.
• caus-Heat; fever.
• causimomancyDivination by studying the behaviour of objects placed in a fire. Related to empyromancy and pyromancy.
• CebesAn ancient Greek philosopher from Thebes.
• cecidiumA gall produced on a plant by infection from insects etc
• -celeA tumour.
• celoschisisA congenital fissure of the abdominal wall.
• celotomyherniotomy
• -ceneRelated to the geologic era called the Cenozoic, the current one.
• ceno-New or recent.
• cenogamyThe state of a community which permits promiscuous sexual intercourse among its members, i.e. in which husbands and wives are shared and held in common.
• cenosilicaphobiaThe fear of having an empty glass when drinking.
• -centesisPuncture and aspiration of
• centesisPuncture or perforation.
• -centricHaving a specified number of centres.
• cephalgiaHeadache.
• cephalo-Relating to the head; sometimes, particularly, the brain.
• cephalophoreAny of a group of saints depicted in art carrying heads in their hands.
• cephalotribeA surgical instrument for performing cephalotripsy.
• -cephaloushead
• cephalousHaving a head; applied chiefly to the former division of mollusks Cephalata, or Cephalophora (mollusks with a head).
• CerambusA son of Euseiros (himself son of Poseidon) and the nymph Eidothea of Othreis. He offended the nymphs and was transformed into a horned beetle.
• cerargyriteA mineral form of silver chloride, AgCl, that is a rare ore of silver; horn silver.
• cerasA dorsal or lateral outgrowth on the body of nudibranchs.
• cerastesA very flexible horned serpent in Greek legend, said to have no spine and to hide its head in the sand awaiting prey.
• ceratohyalRelating to the bone or cartilage below the epihyal in the hyoid arch.
• ceraunicsThe branch of physics that deals with heat and electricity.
• cerauno-thunderbolt, thunder, lightning.
• ceraunoscopeAn instrument or apparatus employed in the ancient Greek mysteries to imitate thunder and lightning.
• cercalOf or pertaining to the tail.
• ceromancyDivination by pouring melted wax into water and interpreting the bubbles formed.
• CeryxA member of the Athenian royal family as the son of Hermes by either of the princesses Pandrosus and Agraulus.
• cestraciontAny shark historically placed in the genus Cestracion, now in Heterodontus (bullheads, horn shark, Port Jackson shark), Sphyrna (certain hammerheads), and Eusphyrna (winghead sharks).
• cestrosphendoneAn Ancient Greek sling used to fling darts.
• CetoA primordial sea goddess, wife of Phorcys and mother of numerous monsters including Echidna and the gorgons.
• CeyxA king who was transformed into a kingfisher, together with his wife Alcyone.
• chadacrystAn enclosed idiomorphic crystal in a poikilitic fabric.
• ChaeroneaA village in Boeotia, Greece.
• chaetaA chitinous bristle of an annelid worm.
• chaeto-chaeta (“chitinous bristle”).
• chaetognathAny of several marine worms of the phylum Chaetognatha.
• chaetophobiafear of hair and/or hairy people or animals
• chaetophorousHaving bristles.
• chalasticReducing stiffness; laxative.
• chalazaThe location where the nucellus attaches to the integuments, opposite the micropyle.
• chalcanthiteA mineral form of copper sulfate, CuSO₄.
• chalco-Copper; relatedly, also bronze or brass.
• chalcostibiteA black orthorhombic mineral composed of copper antimony disulfide
• chalcothalliteA tetragonal-ditetragonal dipyramidal mineral containing antimony, copper, iron, sulfur, and thallium.
• ChaldiaA region in the mountainous interior of the eastern Black Sea, northeast Anatolia (modern Turkey) in Western Asia, and inhabited by the Chaldoi or Chalybes.
• chalicosisA form of pneumoconiosis affecting the lungs or bronchioles, found chiefly among stonecutters.
• chalicothereAny of various odd-toed ungulates of the family Chalicotheriidae, from the Eocene and Pleistocene periods, which had horse-like heads and apelike bodies.
• chalybeoussteel blue; of the colour of tempered steel.
• chalybiteSynonym of siderite.
• chalypsographysteel-engraving