Circa

How to spell circa

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce circa

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does circa mean?

1. prepositionApproximately or around, used chiefly before an approximate date or figure.

Circa in a sentence

• The manor house was built circa 1740, according to the survey.

• The painting is dated circa 1620 in the gallery catalogue.

Where does circa come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is borrowed unchanged from the Latin preposition circa, meaning 'around' or 'about'. It is closely related to circus, the Latin word for a ring or circle, and to circum, meaning 'around', which survives in English words such as circle, circuit, and circumference. In Latin, circa could refer to position in space ('round about') or to an approximate quantity, and it is the second sense that English adopted. The word entered English scholarly and antiquarian writing in the nineteenth century, chiefly as a tidy way to flag an approximate date, and it is still mostly written before a year. Because it keeps its full Latin form, the spelling trips people who expect an English-looking ending; the single c after the r and the plain -a ending both come straight from the original Latin.

How the word is built

• circ- (from Latin circa/circus: ring, circle)
• -a (Latin inflectional ending)