During research, I encountered a newspaper article with curious “cq” labels after some of the names.
What the cq?
With flashbacks of the old ICQ (“I seek you”) instant messenger, I realized I had come across something I did not know! Yea! A chance to learn something new!
The first article I found was a birth listing with no parenthesis as above.
After further investigation, I learn that these “cq” annotations are to let the copy editor know that the previous word is confirmed to be spelled properly.
According to The New York Times, “cq” is a Latin abbreviation.
It stands for “cadit quaestio,” meaning “the question falls,” if you speak Latin. If you don’t speak Latin, it means, “Just leave this alone and move on to the next paragraph.”
Wikipedia weighs in with, “[t]he precise origin of the term is uncertain,” tracing its use back to abbreviations used in telegraph transmission in the late 1800s. Or, as a mnemonic for “correct as quoted.”
No matter the origin, the “cq” annotation would normally be removed in the final copy edit. One amusing anecdote involved a surname ending “cq” that was mistakenly misinterpreted…
Always learning…
I am always excited to learn something new. Our past practices, traditions and history reveal who we are as a continuation of who we were.
Let me know how I can help you learn something new….