# How do you pronounce cf. ?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-cf/338978>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2006, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-cf/338978 "2006-01-08T05:45:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-cf/338978/21 "2006-01-10T01:43:53Z")

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> [@Colibri](#):
>
> We had a discussion on this some months ago. “CC” definitely originally stood for “carbon copy”’ (or “carbon copies”).

It’s amazing how hard it is for people to believe that you used carbon paper to make copies in the pre-Xerox photocopier days.

Reminds me of the old mimeograph machines I used to do word searches on for fellow students in class. 😃

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**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\
**Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-pronounce-cf/338978/22 "2006-01-10T15:21:32Z")

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> [@DSYoungEsq](#):
>
> It’s amazing how hard it is for people to believe that you used carbon paper to make copies in the pre-Xerox photocopier days.
> 
> Reminds me of the old mimeograph machines I used to do word searches on for fellow students in class. 😃

It’s not that it’s hard for me to believe. I remember playing around with my dad’s carbon paper and manual typewriter. However, I was under the impression that the abbreviation preceded carbon paper.

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