3 ms·
tl;dr - the English acronym would have been CUT, and in French it would have been TUC, so they picked UTC to avoid favoring either one.
by BrentOzar 7y ago
tl;dr - the English acronym would have been CUT, and in French it would have been TUC, so they picked UTC to avoid favoring either one.
- journalctl 7y agoCoordinated Universal Time and Temps Universel Coordonné, respectively. In my head I see UTC and think “Universal Time Coordinated”.
- microcolonel 7y agoTake it to a brand consultancy, and it'll turn into “Universal. Time. Coordinated.”
- mumblemumble 7y agoI see it, more specifically, as "Universal Time, Coordinated". It never struck me as an acronym that demanded explanation in English.
- ubertakter 7y agoInteresting. I always think of it as the Universal Time Coordinate. Probably because I've done a lot of work in inertial coordinate systems (where the earth rotates in the coordinate system versus the coordinate systems rotating with the earth). Inertial coordinate systems have four dimensions, time and three spatial coordinates.
- zeroonetwothree 7y agoPretty sure the natural order in English is UCT not CUT.
- FabHK 7y agoBut historically there were Universal Times, several of them, and this was the coordinated version of them.
- organsnyder 7y agoEither one works, as long as the T is at the end. They both feel equally natural to me.
- kurtisc 7y agoI disagree. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adjectives-order https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/adj... With this the type (?) (universal) comes before the the purpose (co-ordination) Despite the URL I don't believe this adjective order rule is limited to British English.
- kelnos 7y agoI suppose it depends on what is modifying what. If it's actually "universal time" and you have coordinated it, then CUT makes sense. If it's just "time" that you've both made universal and coordinated, then UCT makes sense.