4 ms·

Point of information. I've heard of AD and BC, CE and BCE, but I've never heard of DC. What is DC?

schoen 9y ago
Some Romance languages use that for AD, like Italian "dopo Cristo" and Portuguese "depois de Cristo" ('after Christ'). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/AD#Translations https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/AD#Translations
- gus_massa 9y ago
  Exactly. I'm from Argentina and I forget to "translate" that part Fixed. Thanks to both.
- nerdponx 9y ago
  I've never heard of this before. Does anyone else find it strange that two very strongly Catholic societies abandoned the Latin version, while other societies didn't?
  - schoen 9y ago
    I think abandoning ecclesiastical Latin terms for things is kind of random, and isn't usually very correlated with religiosity. (If people actually wanted to be secular about it, they would nowadays say "era volgare", "era comune", "era comum", etc.) Edit: for example Portuguese has retained numbered weekdays (like Hebrew and ecclesiastical Latin practice), while Spanish has gone along with the widespread European trend of using the classical Roman names. In Spanish the first work day is the Moon's Day, while in Portuguese it's Second Day (based on the Biblical second day of creation). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week I don't think we can read any huge theological or cultural implications into this difference, though.
    - dredmorbius 9y ago
      Given that we're fast approaching the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's famous door-nailing, the roles of vulgar languages and schism with Catholic doctrine might be related to this, though I'd have to look into the history. The AD/BC system is formally known as the Dyonisian Era System, and dates to ... 525, er, CE, when it was created by Dionysius Exiguus. The use of "common era" dates to 1615. The English Reformation (schism with the Catholic Church) to 1532 - 1534. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Reformation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Reformation

Some Romance languages use that for AD, like Italian "dopo Cristo" and Portuguese "depois de Cristo" ('after Christ'). https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/AD#Translations https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/AD#Translations

gus_massa 9y ago
Exactly. I'm from Argentina and I forget to "translate" that part Fixed. Thanks to both.
nerdponx 9y ago
I've never heard of this before. Does anyone else find it strange that two very strongly Catholic societies abandoned the Latin version, while other societies didn't?
- schoen 9y ago
  I think abandoning ecclesiastical Latin terms for things is kind of random, and isn't usually very correlated with religiosity. (If people actually wanted to be secular about it, they would nowadays say "era volgare", "era comune", "era comum", etc.) Edit: for example Portuguese has retained numbered weekdays (like Hebrew and ecclesiastical Latin practice), while Spanish has gone along with the widespread European trend of using the classical Roman names. In Spanish the first work day is the Moon's Day, while in Portuguese it's Second Day (based on the Biblical second day of creation). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_days_of_the_week I don't think we can read any huge theological or cultural implications into this difference, though.
  - dredmorbius 9y ago
    Given that we're fast approaching the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther's famous door-nailing, the roles of vulgar languages and schism with Catholic doctrine might be related to this, though I'd have to look into the history. The AD/BC system is formally known as the Dyonisian Era System, and dates to ... 525, er, CE, when it was created by Dionysius Exiguus. The use of "common era" dates to 1615. The English Reformation (schism with the Catholic Church) to 1532 - 1534. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Reformation https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Reformation