It's medical shorthand. Actually it could be general shorthand too. But I know it's medical shorthand. I found my wife using it in a card to her mother. I had to tell her - 'look, your mom isn't going to know what that means'. So no, you are not making it all up.

Oh, that makes sense. I guess my medical roots are showing.

Thanks Eben.

For what it's worth, the medical shorthand refers to the Latin word cum, which means with (as in Magna cum Laude, with High Honors).

We still haven't answered one of Toothfish's questions. Anybody ever seen this glyph as part of a standard charcter set? For instance, I know there were stenographer machines once ( now? ) - did/do they use this symbol? Is it a part of Unicode fonts?

I can't speak to its availability as a glyph (although I suppose you could make one with a "c" and a macron), but I do know that it comes from the Latin cum.

Similarly, you sometimes see in the medical field s-macron, meaning "without," from the Latin sin. There's a whole world of interesting medical shorthand, including OS ("left eye") and NPO ("nothing by mouth").

vv
J.O.

Nai tiruvantel ar varyuvantel i Valar tielyanna nu vilya.