Earlier quoted context omitted.
Such elegance, or snobbery or at least some kind of beauty... Using "&" literally in 2026 smells of wonder, well done, thanks! Do you do it sometimes in regular English words too or just in &c? Please give more examples (if you have any). This will be a great day, starting of like this: a written play with words; i like it!
&c as an abbreviation for etc was very common historically. For example, look at the OP. It would not normally be used for an et that is not the latin et (and), as in et cetera. Its use for an 'and' in latin carried over to english, for some reason, and that usage has stayed with us.
It’s hard to see but & is literally an e and a t conjoined. Not a ligature exactly