Carbon Copy (CC)
In email terms, “CC” stands for Carbon Copy. It’s a nod to the old days of physical correspondence, when letters were duplicated using carbon paper. Today, CC lets you send a copy of your email to someone without making them the primary recipient. They can read what you’ve sent, but they’re not necessarily expected to reply or take action.
There’s also a cousin of CC: BCC, or Blind Carbon Copy. You won’t always see it used, but it allows you to send a copy of the message invisibly. People in the “To” or “CC” fields won’t know someone was blind-copied. That has different implications, usually related to privacy or discretion and is common in email communications, where you don’t want to expose everyone’s email addresses.