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It's because it matches the way we speak dates aloud. When intended for human consumption, sortability and big-endianness doesn't matter, but matching the way w

It's because it matches the way we speak dates aloud. When intended for human consumption, sortability and big-endianness doesn't matter, but matching the way we speak does. Maybe other cultures actually speak dates differently, I don't know, but I have never seen a native English speaker habitually speak dates any differently than "January 1st, 2001". All that said, I definitely agree with the original complaint, m-dd-yy is an atrocious format. If you're going to use dashes, stick with yyyy-mm-dd. Replacing the dashes with slashes, as in 2/22/22, would have been fine.

rmccue 4y ago
“the twenty-sixth of April” would be the way I say today’s date and anecdotally is in common usage in both countries I’ve lived in (the UK and Australia, both using d/m/y). I’d say it’s about as frequent as “April the twenty-sixth” by itself, and definitely more common if you include the day (“Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of April”).
ChrisKnott 4y ago
In the UK I think "1st of January" is probably slightly more common than "January the 1st" although you hear both. "January 1st" (no "the") sounds American.
verve_rat 4y ago
I'm from NZ and it is 100% normal to switch back and forth between "The second of March" and "March the 23rd". People I have met from Australia, South Africa, the UK, all have the same flexibility.
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jc_811 4y ago
Oh this is a great point! I'd never realized that. I know that in Spanish (and I assume many of the romance languages) we always say the day first, eg dos de febrero (2nd of February). In American English even though the day first technically is grammatically correct, we pretty much never say it in that order (February 2nd instead of the 2nd of February)
ascar 4y ago
Given that so many (all?) other English speaking nations including the UK usually speak it the other way around and write it day-month-year, I wonder if writing (especially thinking about newspapers here) influenced the way you speak it and not the other way around. March 1st saves space and ink over 1st of March or some other rationale. Someone certainly has already investigated the origin of putting the month first? Edit: [1] says my hypothesis is most likely wrong, but that the UK just changed it later to match the rest of Europe. So maybe that influenced their way of speaking? In any case, matching the way one speaks doesn't seem to be a strong reason as it's easily adaptable and month names are unambiguous. Interestingly it also quotes that using a purely numeric format is incorrect in any formal use as to not confuse month and day. [1] https://iso.mit.edu/americanisms/date-format-in-the-united-states/ https://iso.mit.edu/americanisms/date-format-in-the-united-s...
- Symbiote 4y ago
  Old documents from the UK use both formats. There could be a European influence, but it would be from 150 or more years ago. http://anguline.co.uk/cert/birth.html http://anguline.co.uk/cert/birth.html
selcuka 4y ago
I don't think how we speak dates is relevant. We say "hundred and fifty dollars" but still write it as "$150".

rmccue 4y ago

“the twenty-sixth of April” would be the way I say today’s date and anecdotally is in common usage in both countries I’ve lived in (the UK and Australia, both using d/m/y). I’d say it’s about as frequent as “April the twenty-sixth” by itself, and definitely more common if you include the day (“Tuesday, the twenty-sixth of April”).

ChrisKnott 4y ago

In the UK I think "1st of January" is probably slightly more common than "January the 1st" although you hear both. "January 1st" (no "the") sounds American.

verve_rat 4y ago

I'm from NZ and it is 100% normal to switch back and forth between "The second of March" and "March the 23rd". People I have met from Australia, South Africa, the UK, all have the same flexibility.

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jc_811 4y ago

Oh this is a great point! I'd never realized that. I know that in Spanish (and I assume many of the romance languages) we always say the day first, eg dos de febrero (2nd of February). In American English even though the day first technically is grammatically correct, we pretty much never say it in that order (February 2nd instead of the 2nd of February)

ascar 4y ago

Given that so many (all?) other English speaking nations including the UK usually speak it the other way around and write it day-month-year, I wonder if writing (especially thinking about newspapers here) influenced the way you speak it and not the other way around. March 1st saves space and ink over 1st of March or some other rationale. Someone certainly has already investigated the origin of putting the month first? Edit: [1] says my hypothesis is most likely wrong, but that the UK just changed it later to match the rest of Europe. So maybe that influenced their way of speaking? In any case, matching the way one speaks doesn't seem to be a strong reason as it's easily adaptable and month names are unambiguous. Interestingly it also quotes that using a purely numeric format is incorrect in any formal use as to not confuse month and day. [1] https://iso.mit.edu/americanisms/date-format-in-the-united-states/ https://iso.mit.edu/americanisms/date-format-in-the-united-s...

Symbiote 4y ago
Old documents from the UK use both formats. There could be a European influence, but it would be from 150 or more years ago. http://anguline.co.uk/cert/birth.html http://anguline.co.uk/cert/birth.html

selcuka 4y ago

I don't think how we speak dates is relevant. We say "hundred and fifty dollars" but still write it as "$150".