Definition:Limaçon of Pascal/Linguistic Note

Linguistic Note on Limaçon of Pascal
Pascal's snail.

The word limaçon derives from the Latin limax, meaning snail.

It is a loan-word from the French, and should be pronounced something like lee-ma-son, following the French as closely as can be managed.

The underneath the c is a, whose purpose is to make it sound like s.

The word cedilla itself derives from old Spanish for little z, which is how it came about: as the bottom half of a minuscule cursive z.