PC

See also: Appendix:Variations of "pc"

Translingual

Etymology 1

Symbol

PC

1. (metrology) Symbol for petacoulomb, an SI unit of electric charge equal to 10¹⁵ coulombs.

Etymology 2

Symbol

PC

1. (international standards, obsolete) Former ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands from 1974 to 1986.

   Synonym: PCI (alpha-3)

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌpiː ˈsiː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

PC (comparative more PC, superlative most PC)

1. Initialism of politically correct.

   Antonyms: non-PC, un-PC

2. Initialism of pro-choice.
3. Initialism of Progressive Conservative.
4. (mathematics) Initialism of partially continuous.

Derived terms

• (politically correct): PCness, PCism, post-PC

Noun

PC (countable and uncountable, plural PCs)

2. Initialism of personal computer.
   1. A personal computer, especially one similar to an IBM PC that runs Microsoft Windows (or, originally, DOS), usually as opposed to (say) an Apple Mac.
      • 1987, InfoWorld, volume 9, numbers 27-39, page 28:

        “For some of the imaging we do,” says Richard Miner, research manager at the University of Lowell's Center for Productivity Enhancement, “we are using both the Amiga and the PC [with the bridge card]. […]

      • 2006, Sonia Weiss, Streetwise Selling On Ebay, →ISBN, page 89:

        In general, the prices for PC and Mac laptops can be competitive, […]

      • 2010, Ann Raimes, Maria Jerskey, Keys for Writers, →ISBN, page 297:

        Versions of Word for PC and Mac

        It is not unusual to find both Mac and PC computers in college computer laboratories, so you may need to become familiar with both Word for PCs and Word for Mac.

      • 2013 April 29, Steve Kovach, “Is the PC dead?”, in CNN Business‎^[1]:

        There’s a devastating narrative being told about the PC these days: It’s dying.
        It’s not a slow death either. Sales of traditional PCs are collapsing faster than anyone expected.

      • 2023 March 7, Joel Loynds, “Best RAM for gaming in 2023: DDR4, DDR5 & more”, in Dexerto‎^[2]:

        Looking for the best RAM for your PC in 2023 has gotten a little bit more complicated than before. With the advent of DDR5, you can now choose between a newer standard, and an older one. DDR4 has a differently keyed connector, and you’re also going to have to check that the RAM is compatible with your CPU in the first place. So, what should you buy?

3. Initialism of parsec.
4. Initialism of photocopy.
5. (medicine) Initialism of presenting complaint.
6. (gaming) Initialism of player character.

   Antonym: NPC

7. Initialism of public convenience.
8. (law enforcement) Initialism of police constable, a police rank used in Commonwealth countries.
9. Initialism of political correctness.
10. (organic chemistry) Initialism of polycarbonate.
11. (anatomy) Initialism of posterior commissure.
12. Initialism of privy council.
13. Initialism of privy councillor and postnominal.
14. Initialism of press conference.
15. (US) Initialism of probable cause.
16. (UK, law enforcement) Initialism of previous conviction.
17. Initialism of Probate Court.
18. (film) Initialism of Production Code.
19. Initialism of professional corporation.
20. (computing) Initialism of program counter.
21. Initialism of progressive contextualization.
22. (Canadian politics, dated) Initialism of Progressive Conservative.
23. (Canadian politics, by extension) A member of the Conservative Party of Canada. [since 2003]
24. Initialism of protective custody.
    • 1987 April 4, Greg Thomas, “life-threatening”, in Gay Community News, page 6:

      The prison likes to force people out of PC by threatening them with disciplinary reports and taking away our property; also being made to sleep on a concrete slab with a blast of cold air constantly blowing into the cell.

25. Initialism of private chat.
26. Initialism of patrol craft.

    Coordinate terms: PB, PS, PV, P, PT, PG, PM

27. Initialism of patrol cutter.
28. Initialism of patrol, coastal, a coastal patrol boat.
29. (anatomy) Initialism of pubococcygeus muscle.
30. (bingo) forty-nine (an allusion to a cartoon character, Police Constable 49)
31. (gambling) Abbreviation of percentage.
    • 1978, John Scarne, Scarne's Guide to Casino Gambling‎^[3], page 321:

      The honest casino operator obtains it either by levying a direct charge or by extracting a favorable P.C. (percentage) on each wager.

    • 1997, Benny J. Berry, Gambling's Greatest Secrets Revealed:

      […] but in the long run, the casino's PC (percentage) for casino games will erode your bankroll.

32. (organic chemistry) Abbreviation of propylene carbonate.
33. Initialism of personnel carrier.
34. (South Korean idol fandom) Initialism of photocard.

Quotations

• 2005, Lance Parkin, The Gallifrey Chronicles, page 79:

  ‘I talked them out of that, and now one of their PCs is letting me borrow their PC. Very PC of him, I thought,’ the Doctor explained.

  The three uses in this quotation mean police constable, personal computer, and politically correct, respectively.

Derived terms

• (personal computer): PC-compatible, PC-BSD, PC clone, PC-DOS, PC shaming, post-PC
• (police constable): WPC

Translations

initialism of personal computer

• Armenian: ԱՀ (hy) (AH)
• Burmese: ပီစီ (pici)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 個人電腦 / 个人电脑 (zh) (gèrén diànnǎo)

• German: PC (de) m
• Greek: Η/Υ (el) m (I/Y)
• Hindi: पी सी (pī sī)
• Italian: PC (it)
• Japanese: パソコン (ja) (pasokon), PC (ja) (PC)
• Korean: 피시 (ko) (pisi)
• Polish: PC (pl) m, pecet (pl) m
• Russian: ПК (ru) m (PK)
• Spanish: PC (es) m
• Thai: พีซี (th) (pii-sii)
• Turkish: PC (tr)
• Ukrainian: ПК (uk) m (PK)

References

• (organic chemistry) Bashford, David. Thermoplastics: Directory and databook; →ISBN. London: Chapman & Hall, 1997.

Proper noun

PC

1. Initialism of Proto-Celtic.
2. Initialism of Penn Central.
3. (US, navy) Initialism of Coastal Patrol.
4. Initialism of Phrozen Crew.
5. (UK politics) Initialism of Plaid Cymru.
6. (US) Initialism of Presbyterian Church.
7. (Canada, politics) Initialism of Progressive Canadian Party.
8. (Canada, politics, dated) Initialism of Progressive Conservative Party.
9. (Philippines, law enforcement, historical) Initialism of Philippine Constabulary.

Verb

PC (third-person singular simple present PCs, present participle PCing, simple past and past participle PCed)

1. (sometimes with up) To make politically correct.
   • 1991 December, Renée Gearhart Levy, “PC’ed Out,” Syracuse University Magazine, quoted in Steven Mailloux, Reception Histories, Cornell University Press (1998), →ISBN, page 169.
   • a. 2005, John Donoghue, Shakespeare My Butt, Second edition, Troubador Publishing Ltd, published 2005, →ISBN, page 193:

     However, the process of ‘PC’ing’ cheese on toast was too much for me.

   • 2005, Matthew Coker, Explanations 2005, Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 272:

     Becoming up in arms against the ACLU and others who are PCing Christmas really will amount to nothing in the end.

   • 2008 December 13, Giz, “Scream Queen”, in Ménage à 3‎^[4], archived from the original on 11 June 2010:

     [Zii:] Weren’t they purple though?
     [Gary:] That was the cartoon. Hanna-Barbera PCed it up for Amer…

See also

• (policing): supt., DCI, DI, DS, DC
• (computing): Mac, desktop computer, home computer, personal workstation, microcomputer
• (Canadian politics): CPC, RCAP/CA, LPC, NDP, CCF, BQ

Further reading

• “PC”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• C/P, CP, Cp., cp, cp.

Catalan

Noun

PC m (plural PCs)

1. PC (personal computer)

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pe.se/

• Audio (France (Toulouse)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Proper noun

PC f

1. (journalism, in Canada) CP initialism of Presse canadienne (Canadian Press)
2. (education, in Tunisia) CP initialism of Physique-Chimie (Engineering stream)

Coordinate terms

(Presse canadienne):

• AFP (France)

See also

• Presse canadienne on the French Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^fr

German

Etymology

Borrowed from English PC.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /peːˈtseː/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Noun

PC m (strong, genitive PCs or PC, plural PCs or PC)

1. PC (personal computer)

Declension

Declension of PC [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	PC	die	PCs, PC
genitive	eines	des	PCs, PC	der	PCs, PC
dative	einem	dem	PC	den	PCs, PC
accusative	einen	den	PC	die	PCs, PC

Further reading

• “PC” in Duden online
• “PC”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[5] (in German)

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): ^**/pitˈt͡ʃi/^*
• IPA^(key): (careful style) /piˈsi/^**
• Rhymes: -i

Noun

PC m

1. initialism of personal computer

Japanese

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) ピーシー [pìíshíꜜì] (Nakadaka – [3])
• IPA^(key): [pʲiːɕiː]

Noun

PC(ピーシー) • (pīshī) 

1. PC; personal computer

   Synonym: パソコン (pasokon)

Korean

Etymology

Orthographic borrowing from English PC.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [pʰiɕ͈i]
• Phonetic hangul: [피씨]

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	pisi
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	pisi
McCune–Reischauer?	p'issi
Yale Romanization?	phiqsi

Noun

PC • (PC)

2. synonym of 피시 (pisi)

Polish

Etymology 1

Etymology tree

Middle English personal

English personal

Latin computō

Proto-Italic *-āzi

▲

Latin -ereinflu.

Latin -āre

Latin computārelbor.

French computerbor.

English compute

Proto-Indo-European *-yósder.

Proto-Italic *-āzijos

Latin -āriusnom.

Latin -āriusbor.

Proto-Germanic *-ārijaz

Proto-West Germanic *-ārī

Old English -ere

Middle English -ere

English -er

English computer

English personal computer

English PCobor.

Polish PC

Orthographic borrowing from English PC.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /piˈsi/, /pɛˈt͡sɛ/, (colloquial) /ˈpɛ.t͡sɛt/

• Audio; /piˈsi/:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -i, -ɛ, -ɛt͡sɛt
• Syllabification: PC

Noun

PC m inan or (colloquial) m animal (indeclinable)

2. (computing) PC, personal computer (small computer, built around a microprocessor, for use by one person at a time)

   Synonyms: komputer osobisty, pecet

   Hypernym: komputer

   komputer PC ― PC computer

Declension

Only if pronounced as pecet, otherwise indeclinable.

Declension of PC

	singular	plural
nominative	PC	PC-ety
genitive	PC-eta	PC-etów
dative	PC-etowi	PC-etom
accusative	PC/PC-eta	PC-ety
instrumental	PC-etem	PC-etami
locative	PC-ecie	PC-etach
vocative	PC-ecie	PC-ety

Same as above, but with rare short forms (except for the locative/vocative singular).

Declension of PC

	singular	plural
nominative	PC	PC-y
genitive	PC-a	PC-ów
dative	PC-owi	PC-om
accusative	PC/PC-a	PC-y
instrumental	PC-em	PC-ami
locative	PC-ecie	PC-ach
vocative	PC-ecie	PC-y

Alternative forms

• pc (Internet slang)

Etymology 2

Initialism of Porozumienie Centrum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pɛˈt͡sɛ/
• Rhymes: -ɛ
• Syllabification: PC

Proper noun

PC n (indeclinable)

2. (politics) the Centre Agreement (Christian democratic political party in Poland, founded 1990 and dissolved 2002)

   Hypernym: partia

   Klub Parlamentarny PC ― PC Parliamentary Group

   Rada Polityczna PC ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

   Zarząd Główny PC ― (please add an English translation of this usage example)

Further reading

• “PC”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[6] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “PC”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[7] (in Polish)
• PC in PWN's encyclopedia
• Woliński, Marcin; Saloni, Zygmunt; Wołosz, Robert; Gruszczyński, Włodzimierz; Skowrońska, Danuta; Bronk, Zbigniew (2020), “PC”, in Słownik gramatyczny języka polskiego [Grammatical Dictionary of Polish]‎^[8], 4. online edition, Warszawa

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˌpeˈse/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˌpeˈse/

• Rhymes: -e

Etymology 1

Unadapted borrowing from English PC.

Noun

PC m (plural PCs)

1. PC (personal computer)

   Synonyms: mestrecorrida (Internet slang), computador

Derived terms

• PC gamer
• PCismo
• PCista

Etymology 2

Proper noun

PC m

1. initialism of Paulo César, a male given name.

Further reading

• “PC”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English PC (“personal computer”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /peˈθe/ [peˈθe] (Equatorial Guinea, Spain)
• IPA^(key): /peˈse/ [peˈse] (Latin America, Philippines)
• Rhymes: -e
• Syllabification: P‧C

Noun

PC m (plural PCs)

1. computer

   Synonyms: computadora, computador, compu, (Spain) ordenador