Etymology Unknown, perhaps from Celtic, such as Irish ceara (“fiery red”) (found in personal names). Or, perhaps borrowed from Middle Low German schar (“flounder, dab”), from Old Saxon skard, from Proto-Germanic *skardaz, related to *skeraną (“to cut”), referring to its shape. If so, related to shard.
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Any of the several species of fishes of the genus Salvelinus.
Among other native delicacies, they give you fresh char.
Etymology From Middle English cherre (“odd job”), from Old English ċierr (“a turn, change, time, occasion, affair, business”), from ċierran (“to turn, change, turn oneself, go, come, proceed, turn back, return, regard, translate, persuade, convert, be converted, agree to, submit, make to submit, reduce”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Dutch keer (“a time, turn, occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn, bight, bend”) and kehren (“to sweep”) or umkehren (“to return or reverse”). More at chore, ajar.
To work, especially to do housework; to work by the day, without being a regularly hired servant.
She explained that she was the commissionaire's wife, who did the charing, and I gave her the order for the coffee.1893, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Naval Treaty, Norton, published 2005, page 677:
Her husband had been a soldier, and from a grateful country she received a pension large enough to keep her from starvation, and by charring and doing such odd jobs as she could get she earned a little extra to supply herself with liquor.1897, W. Somerset Maugham, Lisa of Lambeth, chapter 2
All's chared when he is gone.1613–1614, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, “The Two Noble Kinsmen”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act III, scene ii:
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To work or hew (stone, etc.)
char
noun
Etymology From Middle English cherre (“odd job”), from Old English ċierr (“a turn, change, time, occasion, affair, business”), from ċierran (“to turn, change, turn oneself, go, come, proceed, turn back, return, regard, translate, persuade, convert, be converted, agree to, submit, make to submit, reduce”), from Proto-Germanic *karzijaną (“to turn”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *gers- (“to bend, turn”). Cognate with Dutch keer (“a time, turn, occasion”), German Kehre (“a turn, bight, bend”) and kehren (“to sweep”) or umkehren (“to return or reverse”). More at chore, ajar.
Obsolete A turn of work; a labour or item of business.
3
An odd job, a chore or piece of housework.
When thou hast done this chare, I’ll give thee leave to play till doomsday.c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii]:
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A charlady, a woman employed to do housework; cleaning lady.
I had to scrub the kitchen today, because the char couldn't come.
But there was nobody at Kig and Kadgit's except the charwoman wiping over the “lino” in the passage. “Nobody here yet, Miss,” said the char.1919, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Pictures”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 163:
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The rollers wore grooves in the nursery floors and the chars complained of getting splinters in their hands while scrubbing.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 77:
The unit is an 80-column, 30 char. /sec dot matrix printer which uses a 5 by 7 font.1975 April 23, Computerworld, page 21:
Chars can be considered as integers if need be without an explicit cast.1997, Cay S Horstmann, Gary Cornell, Core Java 1.1: Fundamentals:
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Then since each char occupies one byte, these four bytes represent the three letters 'B', 'y', 'e', and the null character NUL.1998, John R Hubbard, Schaum's Outline of Theory and Problems of Fundamentals of Computing with C++:
When a 32-bit int value is stored to a 16-bit char variable, information can be lost if the 16 most significant bits are not zeroes in the int value.2004, Kari Laitinen, A Natural Introduction to Computer Programming with C#:
Thus string variables are pointer variables to chars.2000, Ken Brownsey, The essence of data structures using C++:
.NET uses the Unicode character set in which each char constant or variable takes up two bytes (16 bits) of storage.2002, Nell B. Dale, Michael McMillan, Visual Basic .NET: a laboratory course - Page 25
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Colloquial A character (being involved in the action of a story).
In fact, when I somewhat lack inspiration, I tend to convert my characters according to the rules of a game which universe is close enough (I did it for some of the chars in my WIP, taking the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook).2006, Yzabel, quotee, “The Y Logs”, in Deborah Woehr, editor, 2006 Writer’s Blog Anthology: A Collection of Works by Writers Who Blog, [Morrisville, N.C.]: Lulu.com, →ISBN, page 93:
WoW exp I feel that it is just a progress from Lv70 to 80 and then back to square one to raid\arena or die expansion. So I don’t see the point of going back just to level my char to 80 and let them idle at end-game.2008 September, Soulhacker, quotee, “Ongoing MMO Wars”, in GameAxis Unwired, number 60, Singapore: SPH Magazines Pte Ltd, →ISSN, page 11:
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The class (an adventuring style (e.g. mage, warrior, hunter, etc.) of the character, which determines abilities, weapons, etc.) choice often also influences the gaming and language of a character during role-playing. As one of the participants states: / Character bound politeness is part of some of my chars – as well as impoliteness is. An example: A Paladin or Priest has to be polite in RPG according to his profession to the light, a Warlock is the opposite as well as rogues etc.2020, Svitlana Klötzl, Birgit Swoboda, Interpersonal Positioning in English as a Lingua Franca Interactions, New York, N.Y.; Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, →ISBN: