control-C

from Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)

control-C
 vi.

   1. "Stop whatever you are doing." From the interrupt character used on
   many operating systems to abort a running program. Considered silly.

   2. interj. Among BSD Unix hackers, the canonical humorous response to
   "Give me a break!"

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)

control-C
End Of Text
ETX

   <character> (Or ETX, End of Text) The {ASCII} character with
   code 3.

   Control-C is the interrupt character used on many {operating
   systems}, including {Unix} and {MS-DOS} to abort a running
   program.

   Among {BSD} {Unix} hackers, the canonical humorous response
   to "Give me a break!" is "Control C".

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1995-03-16)