transcription, транскрипция: [ kkeɪ ]
abbreviation (Business World) (Science and Technology) One thousand (widely used as an abbreviation in computing and hence also in financial contexts, newspaper advertisements, tables, etc.). Etymology: The initial letter of kilo-, the combining form used to denote a factor of 1,000 in metric measurements such as kilogram, kilometre, etc. and to represent either 1,000 or 1,024 in computing, as in kilobyte etc. History and Usage: The abbreviation K has been used in computing since the early sixties, especially to denote a kilobyte (1,024 bytes) of memory. Although, for technical reasons, K does not represent exactly 1,000 in this context, it was the computing use that brought the abbreviation to public notice during the seventies and early eighties (as computers became commonplace in most people's working lives in industrialized countries) and, at least in popular usage, established its meaning as '1,000'. In the late sixties, job advertisements for computing personnel would sometimes give the salary offered as '$...K' or 'ø...K', meaning '...thousands of dollars or pounds sterling'. By the early eighties this practice had been picked up in job advertisements outside computing as well; K also began to be used in place of the three zeros in prices of houses offered for sale etc. It was even possible to hear K in spoken use (unusual for an initial-letter abbreviation); this was associated particularly with the 'yuppiespeak' (see yuppie) of the mid eighties. Financial administrator, Thames Valley, from ø12k. advertisement in Daily Telegraph 26 Feb. 1986, p. 25 Alfa-Romeo--'84...Perf. cond. 23k ml. advertisement in Washington Post 31 Aug. 1986, section K, p. 24 I told him I had been approached by a cash purchaser with thirty-five k. Andrew Davies Getting Hurt (1989), p. 95