How Does the Writer Say Etcetera?
December 27, 2024 at 08:30PMFor the Los Angeles Review of Books, Sumana Roy dives deep into language and meaning as she considers the use of and the multitudes contained in the term, “et cetera,” which means, “and the rest.” In looking at works by Melville, Wordsworth, Defoe, Frost, and more, Roy suggests that art and the artist reside in the vast spaces in between “et cetera.”
THE FIRST SIGN of my little nephew’s moving closer to adulthood wasn’t when he used a cuss word for the first time—he still hasn’t, I must hasten to add—but when he said “etcetera.” I think he was around six years old. Records of his height and weight were being maintained by his parents and pediatrician, but it was his growing into language—lisping, mispronouncing, and, most of all, his daily acquisition of words—that excited me. Suddenly, without any kind of preparation or announcement, he had used the word: etcetera, a word that could hold the entire world in it. It could mean only one thing—he had grown aware of the world, and he had grown up.
“Etcetera—“et,” meaning “and,” and “cetera,” “the rest.” This has the sense of leftovers.
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/12/27/how-does-the-writer-say-etcetera/
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