How would you pronounce this file system directory name commonly found on linux and unix-like systems?
Contains system-wide configuration files and system databases; the name stands for et cetera[14] but now a better expansion is editable-text-configurations. Originally also contained "dangerous maintenance utilities" such as init,[6] but these have typically been moved to /sbin or elsewhere. Needs to be on the root filesystem itself.
/etc stands for Et Cetera which is a Latin expression used in English to mean and other (similar) things, or and so forth.
Translated literally from Latin, et means 'and', while cētera means 'the rest'; thus the expression translates to 'and the rest (of such things)'.
But if you had to tell another person to put a file in the /etc directory, how would you say it?
Listen to a few examples from technology professionals on the latest episode of "How Do You Say?"
Want to see more tech word pronunciations by tech professionals? Find them on Youtube. New videos ship every Friday.
Top comments (4)
"Slash E T C", or phonetically probably something like "e-te-see". I pronounce the letters individually. If the context is clear I may leave out the slash part.
That video surprised me because I don't think I've heard anyone pronounce it diferently than I do. From what I can remember all my colleagues pronounce it the same as me, and it's a word that comes up regularly in my work. Though it may also be partly due to living in a country where we don't speak English natively.
I really would love to find a broader group of non-native english speakers for another round of this as I think it will be fascinating to see how more people pronounce these terms we rarely say!
I'm spanish, so for me it's "etcétera"
e-te-tse.