c/-: What does '-' stand for? (2025)

A simple query: why in Australia 'c/-' is used for an abbreviation for 'in care of'? I understand 'c/o,' but what does '-' in 'c/-' stand for?

Hiro

JulianStuart said:

Hiro, please tell us where you found this.
Without context/background/source we can't give you a useful answer.

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It's actually everywhere in Australia. I used to work for one of their foreign missions; I saw it on envelopes, particularly, to individuals staying at someone else's. I still see it very very often to the point I figured there was no need to put up an example here.

Okay, how about like this. I just made it up, Julian:

Mr XXXXX
c/- Mr and Ms YYYYYY
address

HSS said:

It's actually everywhere in Australia. I used to work for one of their foreign missions; I saw it on envelopes, particularly, to individuals staying at someone else's. I still see it very very often to the point I figured there was no need to put up an example here.

Okay, how about like this. I just made it up, Julian:

Mr XXXXX
c/- Mr and Ms YYYYYY
address

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Thanks for that. I had never seen this form - I don't have any relatives in Australia I'm very familiar with c/o and its use.
I like Myridon's answer!

Myridon said:

It just happens to be what they use. I don't think we need to understand it. Some people use % instead of c/o.
See http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/care_of

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Hi, Myridon. Yes, I had read that article too. I notice it's not %, but it's ℅.

JulianStuart said:

Thanks for that. I had never seen this form - I don't have any relatives in Australia I'm very familiar with c/o and its use.
I like Myridon's answer!

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Well, I was curious, Julian, because I had never seen a dash representing any word(s) in an abbreviation.

I just talked to an Australian lady. She says the dash stands for the 'of.' I asked her if she knew there was another example of the abbreviation. She couldn't remember any. It looks like it's one and only. I would be interested to know how the 'of' became a dash.

Hiro

I doubt there will be any scholarly articles on the origin of that variation but there are other examples of letters changing to symbols: the umlaut (dots) over German ä, ö, and ü are the remains of the letter 'e' that followed the a, o and u. The French circumflex above 'e' -> 'ê' is the remains of the letter 's' that used to follow the 'e'.

This abbreviations came about for efficiency when writing: likewise, I assume that this was the origin of the Australian and New Zealand 'c/-'.

Hi, Paul.

For efficiency, right. Yes, it must have come up along the lines. I'm still wondering how come just the 'of,' why not the 'care' too.

Having lived in Australia for a while I can confirm that.

Just a note. I'm sure older Brits will remember this:

2/- (= two shillings)

HSS said:

[...] I'm still wondering how come just the 'of,' why not the 'care' too.

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Hiro, you're not really suggesting that people might have reduced the abbreviated form of "care of" to "-/-"?

Well, I suppose it's possible

london calling said:

Having lived in Australia for a while I can confirm that.

Just a note. I'm sure older Brits will remember this:

2/- (= two shillings)

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Interesting!

Loob said:

Hiro, you're not really suggesting that people might have reduced the abbreviated form of "care of" to "-/-"?

Well, I suppose it's possible

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"-/-" would be possible, YES!!!