char

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See also: Char, čhâr, Char., and chár

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Back-formation from charcoal.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (UK) IPA(key): /t͡ʃɑː/ or IPA(key): [t͡ʃaː]
  • Audio (UK)(file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /t͡ʃɑɹ/, [t͡ʃɑɹ], [t͡ʃɑ˞] or IPA(key): /t͡ʃaɹ/, [t͡ʃaɹ], [t͡ʃa˞]
  • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)

Verb[edit]

char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charring, simple past and past participle charred)

  1. (ergative) To burn something to charcoal.
  2. To burn slightly or superficially so as to affect colour.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

char (plural chars or char)

  1. A charred substance.
Synonyms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

Unknown, perhaps from Celtic, such as Irish ceara (“fiery red”) (found in personal names). Or, perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German schar (“flounder, dab”), from Proto-Germanic *skardaz, related to *skeraną (“to cut”), referring to its shape. If so, related to shard.[1]

Arctic char, Salvelinus alpinus

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

char (plural chars or char)

  1. Any of the several species of fishes of the genus Salvelinus.
    Among other native delicacies, they give you fresh char.
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 3[edit]

From Middle English cherre (“odd job”), from Old English ċierr (“a turn, change, time, occasion, affair, business”), from ċierran (“to turn, change, turn oneself, go, come, proceed, turn back, return, regard, translate, persuade, convert, be converted, agree to, submit, make to submit, reduce”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”).

Cognate with Dutch keer (“a time, turn, occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn, bight, bend”) and kehren (“to sweep”) or umkehren (“to return or reverse”), Greek γύρος (gýros, “a bout, whirl”), gyre. More at chore, ajar.

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

char (plural chars)

  2. (obsolete) A time; a turn or occasion.
  3. (obsolete) A turn of work; a labour or item of business.
  5. An odd job, a chore or piece of housework.
  6. A charlady, a woman employed to do housework; cleaning lady.
    I had to scrub the kitchen today, because the char couldn't come.
Synonyms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Verb[edit]

char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charing or charring, simple past and past participle chared or charred)

  1. (obsolete) To turn, especially away or aside.
  2. To work, especially to do housework; to work by the day, without being a regularly hired servant.
    • 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Naval Treaty" (Norton 2005, p.677)
      She explained that she was the commissionaire's wife, who did the charing, and I gave her the order for the coffee.
    • 1897, W. Somerset Maugham, Lisa of Lambeth, chapter 2
      Her husband had been a soldier, and from a grateful country she received a pension large enough to keep her from starvation, and by charring and doing such odd jobs as she could get she earned a little extra to supply herself with liquor.
  3. (obsolete) To perform; to do; to finish.
  4. To work or hew (stone, etc.)[2]

Etymology 4[edit]

Abbreviation of character, used as the name of a data type in some programming languages, including notably C.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

char (plural chars)

  1. (computing, programming) A character (text element such as a letter or symbol).
    • 1975 April 23, Computerworld, page 21:
      The unit is an 80-column, 30 char. /sec dot matrix printer which uses a 5 by 7 font.
    • 1997, Cay S Horstmann; Gary Cornell, Core Java 1.1: Fundamentals:
      Chars can be considered as integers if need be without an explicit cast.
    • 1998, John R Hubbard, Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Fundamentals of Computing with C++:
      Then since each char occupies one byte, these four bytes represent the three letters 'B', 'y', 'e', and the null character NUL.
    • 2004, Kari Laitinen, A Natural Introduction to Computer Programming with C#:
      When a 32-bit int value is stored to a 16-bit char variable, information can be lost if the 16 most significant bits are not zeroes in the int value.
    • 2000, Ken Brownsey, The essence of data structures using C++:
      Thus string variables are pointer variables to chars.
    • 2002, Nell B. Dale, Michael McMillan, Visual Basic .NET: a laboratory course - Page 25
      .NET uses the Unicode character set in which each char constant or variable takes up two bytes (16 bits) of storage.
Coordinate terms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Related terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Etymology 5[edit]

Non-rhotic spelling of cha.

Noun[edit]

char (uncountable)

  1. (Britain) Alternative form of cha (tea)

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Wright, L. (1996). Sources of London English: Medieval Thames Vocabulary. United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, p. 107
  2. ^ 1845, Oxford Glossary of Architecture

Anagrams[edit]

Atong (India)[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Hindi चार (cār).

Pronunciation[edit]

Numeral[edit]

char (Bengali script চার)

  1. four

Synonyms[edit]

References[edit]

Cebuano[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Hyphenation: char

Interjection[edit]

char

  1. a noncommittal reply to an untrue statement
  2. spoken after something one has said that is untrue or highly ridiculous

Esperanto[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Conjunction[edit]

char

  1. H-system spelling of ĉar

French[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Inherited from Old French char, from Latin carrus, a loan from Transalpine Gaulish. Doublet of car (“coach”), a borrowing from English.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

char m (plural chars)

  1. chariot, carriage
  2. float
  3. (military) tank
  4. (Acadian French, New Brunswick, Quebec, Louisiana, Missouri) car, auto
    Synonym: voiture
  5. (Louisiana) train car
    Synonym: voiture

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Irish[edit]

Etymology[edit]

cha +‎ -r

Pronunciation[edit]

Particle[edit]

char (triggers lenition of the following verb)

  1. (Ulster) not
    Char dhún mé é. ― I did not close it.
    Char chuala mé é. ― I did not hear it.

Usage notes[edit]

Used only in some varieties of Ulster Irish. Used only with the past tense of regular verbs and some irregular verbs.

Synonyms[edit]

  • níor (used in Munster Irish, Connacht Irish, and some varieties of Ulster Irish)

Related terms[edit]

  • cha (used before other tenses)

Middle French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old French char, charn.

Noun[edit]

char f (plural chars)

  1. flesh

Descendants[edit]

  • French: chair

Old French[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From earlier charn, carn, from Latin carnem, accusative singular of carō.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

char f (oblique plural chars, nominative singular char, nominative plural chars)

  1. (anatomy) flesh (tissue from an animal in general)
    • 12th Century, Unknown, Raoul de Cambrai:
      Desor l'espaule li fist la char trenchier
      under his shoulder, he cut into his flesh
  2. meat (flesh of an animal intended to be eaten)
Descendants[edit]

Etymology 2[edit]

From Latin carrus.

Alternative forms[edit]

Noun[edit]

char m (oblique plural chars, nominative singular chars, nominative plural char)

  1. cart
Synonyms[edit]
Descendants[edit]

Romani[edit]

Noun[edit]

char f (plural chara) Anglicized form of ćar

  1. grass
    Le grast xan char.
    The horses are eating grass.
  2. lawn

Romansch[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin cārus.

Adjective[edit]

char m (feminine singular chara, masculine plural chars, feminine plural charas)

  1. dear

Welsh[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

char m

  1. aspirate mutation of car (“car”)

Mutation[edit]

Welsh mutation
radical soft nasal aspirate
car gar nghar char
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.
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