Caesarean

See also: caesarean and Cæsarean

English

Alternative forms

caesarean, Cæsarean, cæsarean, Caesarian, caesarian, Cæsarian, cæsarian
cesarean, Cesarean, Cesarian, cesarian (US)

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -ɛəɹiən

Etymology 1

From Caesarea +‎ -an.

Adjective

Caesarean (not comparable)

Of or relating to Caesarea.

Noun

Caesarean (plural Caesareans)

An inhabitant/citizen of Caesarea.

Etymology 2

From Caesar +‎ -ean, but see also Caesarean section § Etymology.

Adjective

Caesarean (comparative more Caesarean, superlative most Caesarean)

Of, relating to or in the manner of Julius Caesar or other Caesars.

Etymology 3

Shortening of Caesarean section; see also Caesarean section § Etymology.

Noun

Caesarean (plural Caesareans)

(obstetrics) A Caesarean section.

Synonyms

C-section, c-section

Usage notes

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:

Multiplication table
×	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

References

^ Elsevier, Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, Elsevier.
^ Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster.
^ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Anagrams

Aracanese

[1] Elsevier, Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary, Elsevier.

[2] Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, Merriam-Webster.

[3] Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

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