also c.v., abbreviation of curriculum vitae.

Old English and early Middle English spelling of qu- (see Q).

"bowl-shaped hollow at the head of a valley," 1853, from Welsh cwm "coomb" (see coomb). Mostly they are formed by glaciers.

abbreviation of hundredweight (q.v.), with -c- from Latin centum "hundred."

"greenish-blue color," 1889, short for cyan blue (1879), from Greek kyanos "dark blue, dark blue enamel, lapis lazuli," probably a non-Indo-European word, but perhaps akin to, or from, Hittite *kuwanna(n)- "copper blue."

word-forming element used in science for the carbon-nitrogen compound radical, from a Latinized form of Greek kyanos "dark blue" (see cyan).

The immediate source of its use in science is French cyanogène, the name given to the compound radical by Gay-Lussac. He called it that because it first had been obtained by heating the dye pigment powder known as Prussian blue (see Prussian).

The cyanogen radical was one of the first examples of a 'compound radical' and was of importance in the development of structural chemistry during the next forty years. [Flood, "Origins of Chemical Names"]  

a salt of hydrocyanic acid, 1826, from cyan-, used in science as a word-forming element for the carbon-nitrogen compound radical, + chemical ending -ide, on analogy of chloride. The best-known is potassium cyanide, bitter-tasting and extremely poisonous but formerly used in photography, electro-metallurgy, etc.

"blue coloring matter of certain flowers," 1855; see cyan- + -ine (2).

"blue disease," the "blue jaundice" of the ancients, 1820, Medical Latin, from Greek kyanosis, from kyanos "dark blue color" (see cyan) + -osis. Also cyanopathy. It is caused by imperfect circulation and oxygenation of the blood.