Caesarean
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- caesarean, Cæsarean, cæsarean, Caesarian, caesarian, Cæsarian, cæsarian
- cesarean, Cesarean, Cesarian, cesarian (US)
Pronunciation[edit]
- Rhymes: -ɛəɹiən
Etymology 1[edit]
Adjective[edit]
Caesarean (not comparable)
- Of or relating to Caesarea.
Noun[edit]
Caesarean (plural Caesareans)
- An inhabitant/citizen of Caesarea.
Etymology 2[edit]
Caesar + -ean, but see also Caesarean section § Etymology.
Adjective[edit]
Caesarean (comparative more Caesarean, superlative most Caesarean)
- Of, relating to or in the manner of Julius Caesar or other Caesars.
Etymology 3[edit]
Shortening of Caesarean section; see also Caesarean section § Etymology.
Noun[edit]
Caesarean (plural Caesareans)
Synonyms[edit]
Usage notes[edit]
The term "caesarean" (section or delivery) is spelled in various accepted ways.[1][2][3] One variation is the e/ae/æ variation which reflects American and British English spelling differences. Because some sources say the procedure is named after Julius Caesar, the procedure's name is sometimes capitalized. The capital-versus-lowercase variation reflects a style of lowercasing some eponymous terms (e.g., caesarean, eustachian, fallopian, mendelian, parkinsonian, parkinsonism). Capital and lowercase stylings coexist in prevalent usage.
Because of (1) the e-vs-ae digraph variation, (2) the related ae-vs-æ typographic ligature variation, (3) the capital-vs-lowercase variation (which is based on the idea of eponymous origin, whether that is historically accurate or not; see eponym > orthographic conventions), and (4) the -ean-vs--ian suffix variation, these factors cross-multiplied in a table cause this word to be one of the very few words in present-day English orthography to have many different normative spellings or orthographic stylings, which amount to 12 from the point of view of character encoding (that is, there are 12 different character strings that are all accepted as normative orthographic representations of this one word); although some of the 12 are not commonly used, they are not incorrect. The collation is as follows:
| × | C + e | c + e | C + ae | c + ae | C + æ | c + æ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ean | Cesarean | cesarean | Caesarean | caesarean | Cæsarean | cæsarean |
| ian | Cesarian | cesarian | Caesarian | caesarian | Cæsarian | cæsarian |