An archaic or legal term meaning 'around' or 'approximately,' often abbreviated as 'ca.' or 'circ.' in older texts or citations.
From Latin 'circiter,' adverb form of 'circus,' meaning 'about' or 'around.' Used in medieval and early modern English legal and scholarly documents.
When you see 'ca. 1492' in historical writing, that 'ca.' stands for Latin 'circiter'—it's the ancestor of our modern 'circa,' a 500-year-old abbreviation still hiding in footnotes everywhere!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.