ˈkəd.ə(r)-, ˈkətə(r)- noun
Usage: usually capitalized C
Etymology: after Charles A. Cutter died 1903 American librarian
: a combination of characters representing an author's surname, composed of the initial letter or the first letters followed by numbers (as M62 . Milne, M64 . Milton), chosen to make the numerical order of the symbols correspond to the alphabetical order of the names, and used to arrange books in the same class alphabetically by authors