char
English
Etymology 1
Back-formation from charcoal.
Alternative forms
- chewre (obsolete)
Pronunciation
Verb
char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charring, simple past and past participle charred)
- (ergative) To burn something to charcoal.
- To burn slightly or superficially so as to affect colour.
Translations
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Synonyms
Translations
Etymology 2
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]
Alternative forms
Noun
char (plural chars or char)
- One of the several species of fishes of the genus Salvelinus.
- Among other native delicacies, they give you fresh char.
Derived terms
Translations
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Etymology 3
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
Noun
char (plural chars)
- (obsolete) A time; a turn or occasion.
- (obsolete) A turn of work; a labour or item of business.
- An odd job, a chore or piece of housework.
- c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:
- When thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee leave to play till doomsday.
- A charlady, a woman employed to do housework; cleaning lady.
- I had to scrub the kitchen today, because the char couldn't come.
- 1919, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Pictures”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, OCLC 561951956, page 163:
- But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage. “Nobody here yet, Miss,” said the char.
Related terms
Translations
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Verb
char (third-person singular simple present chars, present participle charing or charring, simple past and past participle chared or charred)
- (obsolete) To turn, especially away or aside.
- 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
- 1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Naval Treaty" (Norton 2005, p.677)
- (obsolete) To perform; to do; to finish.
- 1613–1614, William Shakespeare; John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen.”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, OCLC 3083972, Act III, scene ii:
- All's chared when he is gone.
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- To work or hew (stone, etc.)[2]
Etymology 4
Abbreviation of character, used as the name of a data type in some programming languages, including notably C.
Pronunciation
Noun
char (plural chars)
- (computing, programming) A character (text element such as a letter or symbol).
- 1975, Computerworld - 23 April 1975 - 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.
- 1975, Computerworld - 23 April 1975 - Page 21
Derived terms
- signed char
- unsigned char
Etymology 5
Non-rhotic spelling of cha.
See also
References
- Wright, L. (1996). Sources of London English: Medieval Thames Vocabulary. United Kingdom: Clarendon Press, p. 107
- 1845, Oxford Glossary of Architecture
Atong (India)
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /t͡ɕar/
References
- van Breugel, Seino. 2015. Atong-English dictionary, second edition. Available online: https://www.academia.edu/487044/Atong_English_Dictionary. Stated in Appendix 3.
Cebuano
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: char
Interjection
char
- a noncommittal reply to an untrue statement
- spoken after something one has said that is untrue or highly ridiculous
Esperanto
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [t͡ʃar]
- Audio:
(file) - Hyphenation: ĉar
French
Etymology
From Old French char, from Latin carrus, a loan from Transalpine Gaulish. Doublet of car (“coach”), a borrowing from English.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ʃaʁ/
Audio (file)
Noun
char m (plural chars)
Derived terms
Further reading
- “char”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Irish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [xaɾˠ]
Particle
char (triggers lenition of the following verb)
Usage notes
Used only in some varieties of Ulster Irish. Used only with the past tense of regular verbs and some irregular verbs.
Synonyms
- níor (used in Munster Irish, Connacht Irish, and some varieties of Ulster Irish)
Old French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /tʃar/
- Rhymes: -ar
Noun
char f (oblique plural chars, nominative singular char, nominative plural chars)
- (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
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- meat (flesh of an animal intended to be eaten)
Alternative forms
Synonyms
- carre f
Romani
Romansch
Welsh
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /χar/