ca

1. ca the 20th letter of the alphabet, 1st of the 2nd (or palatal) class of consonants, having the sound of ch in church .

2. ca ind. and, both, also, moreover, as well as (= τε , Lat. que , placed like these particles as an enclitic after the word which it connects with what precedes; when used with a personal pronoun this must appear in its fuller accented form ( e.g. tavacamamaca [not tecameca], ‘both of thee and me’), when used after verbs the first of them is accented, Pāṇ. viii, 1, 58 f. ; it connects whole sentences as well as parts of sentences; in RV. the double ca occurs more frequently than the single ( e.g. ahaṃcatvaṃca, ‘I and thou’, viii, 62, 11 ); the double ca may also be used somewhat redundantly in class. Sanskṛt ( e.g. kva hariRakAnAM jIvitaM cA tilolaM kva ca vajra-sArAH SarAs te , ‘where is the frail existence, of fawns and where are thy adamantine arrows?’, Śak. i, 10 ); in later literature, however, the first ca is more usually omitted ( e.g. ahaṃtvaṃca), and when more than two things are enumerated only one ca is often found ( e.g. tejasāyaśasālakṣmyāsthityācaparayā, ‘in glory, in fame, in beauty, and in high position’, Nal. xii, 6 ); elsewhere, when more than two things are enumerated, ca is placed after some and omitted after others ( e.g. ṛṇadātācavaidyaścaśrotriyonadī, ‘the payer of a debt and a physician [and] a Brāhman [and] a river’, Hit. i, 4, 55 ); in Ved. and even in class. Sanskṛt [ Mn. iii, 20 ; ix, 322 ; Hit. ], when the double ca would generally be used, the second may occasionally be omitted ( e.g. indraścasoma, ‘both Indra [and thou] Soma ’, RV. vii, 104, 25 ; durBedyaS cA SusaMDeyaH , ‘both difficult to be divided [and] quickly united’, Hit. i ); with lexicographers ca may imply a reference to certain other words which are not expressed ( e.g. kamaṇḍalaucakarakaḥ, ‘the word karaka has the meaning ‘pitcher’ and other meanings’); sometimes ca is = eva, even, indeed, certainly, just ( e.g. su-cintitaM cO zaDaM na nAma-mAtreRa karoty arogam , ‘even a well-devised remedy does not cure a disease by its mere name’, Hit. ; yāvantaevatetāvāṃścasaḥ, ‘as great as they [were] just so great was he’, Ragh. xii, 45 ); occasionally ca is disjunctive, ‘but’, ‘on the contrary’, ‘on the other hand’, ‘yet’, ‘nevertheless’ ( varam AdyO na cA ntimaH , ‘better the two first but not the last’, Hit. ; śāntamidamāśramapadaṃsphuraticabāhuḥ, ‘this hermitage is tranquil yet my arm throbs’, Śak. i, 15 ); caca, though — yet, Vikr. ii, 9 ; canaca, though — yet not, Pat. ; ca — natu ( v.l. nanu) id. , Mālav. iv, 8 ; naca — ca, though not — yet, Pat. ; ca may be used for vā, ‘either’, ‘or’ ( e.g. iha cA mutra vA , ‘either here or hereafter’, Mn. xii, 89 ; strI vA pumAn vA yac cA nyat sattvam , ‘either a woman or a man or any other being’, R. ), and when a neg. particle is joined with ca the two may then be translated by ‘neither’, ‘nor’; occasionally one ca or one na is omitted ( e.g. na ca pariBoktuM nE va Saknomi hAtum , ‘I am able neither to enjoy nor to abandon’, Śak. v, 18 ; na pUrvA hRe na ca parA hRe , ‘neither in the forenoon nor in the afternoon’); caca may express immediate connection between two acts or their simultaneous occurrence ( e.g. mamacamuktaṃtamasāmanomanasijenadhanuṣiśaraścaniveśitaḥ, ‘no sooner is my mind freed from darkness than a shaft is fixed on his bow by the heart-born god’, vi, 8 ); ca is sometimes = ce d , ‘if’ ( cf. Pāṇ. viii, 1, 30 ; the verb is accented), RV. ; AV. ; MBh. ; Vikr. ii, 20 ; Bhartṛ. ii, 45 ; ca may be used as an expletive ( e.g. anyaiścakratubhiśca, ‘and with other sacrifices’); ca is often joined to an adv. like eva, api, tathā, taTE va , &c., either with or without a neg. particle ( e.g. vEriRaM no paseveta sahA yaM cEva vEriRaH , ‘one ought not to serve either an enemy or the ally of an enemy’, Mn. iv, 133 ); (see eva, api, &c.) For the meaning of ca after an interrogative See 2. ka, 2. kathā, kim, kva);

3. ca mfn. pure, L.