Etc is short-hand for "Et ceteretera" - an ancient Persian expression. Literally translated as "loose mind", it means "and some others that I can't remember". For example: “I killed the last dinosaur by attaching rocks, pebbles and leaves etc to a stick and beating that mofo over the head” ~ Cro-Magnon man on Extinction Here 'etc' is used to signify that other objects were attached to the stick, but that they could not think what they were, most likely because he was lying.