by-way

A secluded, private or obscure way. C, the third letter in the English alphabet, and the second articulation or consonant, is a palatal, nearly corresponding in sound with the Greek x, kappa, and with the HebrewIt bears a middle place in pronunciation, between the aspirate, and the palatal. It is a Roman character, borrowed from the Gr. x, or from the oriental, which was used in languages written from right to left, and when inverted and the corners rounded, becomes C. In the old Etruscan, it was written with the corners rounded, but not inverted; in Arcadian, C, as now written. That its sound in Latin was the same, or nearly the same, as that of kappa, may be known from the fact, that the Greeks, while the Latin was a living language, wrote kappa for the Roman C. Perhaps the same character may be the basis of the Arabic.