3 ms·

Lots of dated things, for the sake of formality, used Roman numerals, e.g. gravestones, books, etc. http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm http://ww

Lots of dated things, for the sake of formality, used Roman numerals, e.g. gravestones, books, etc. http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm

retrac 4y ago
Not just past tense. Here in Canada at least, many recent date/marker stones are still carved with Roman numerals. Bridges, in particular. The preservation in that specific context seems to hint at something. It's the same reason why we carve stone in upper case. Because the Romans did it that way.
kpw94 4y ago
For gravestone and other stone carvings, i feel it's not purely for the sake of formality, by design roman numerals are easy to carve in stone with a chisel and a hammer... At least before reaching the number 90, which is when the C letter appears. On old buildings the letter U was probably carved as a V for that same reason.
- asveikau 4y ago
  The letter U was carved as V because the original Latin alphabet did not have U. V could be a consonant or a vowel, and later on U came about to denote the latter. Wikipedia says the first use of U was in 1386. The same thing is true of I and J. J is the consonant version, and iirc came about around the fourth century AD.
int_19h 4y ago
Much of the world still uses Roman numerals by convention in some date-related contexts. Most commonly to refer to centuries (as in XIX century), but also sometimes for months in dates: "24.IV.2023" etc. This scheme be handy in that it allows for very terse ways to write incomplete dates, too - e.g. "24 IV" for "April, 24".
Mordisquitos 4y ago
They are also used in many languages to represent centuries, as can be seen in the titles of the 20th century Wikipedia article in different languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century

3 ms·

Lots of dated things, for the sake of formality, used Roman numerals, e.g. gravestones, books, etc. http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm http://ww

by jschveibinz 4y ago

Lots of dated things, for the sake of formality, used Roman numerals, e.g. gravestones, books, etc. http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/roman/use.htm

retrac 4y ago
Not just past tense. Here in Canada at least, many recent date/marker stones are still carved with Roman numerals. Bridges, in particular. The preservation in that specific context seems to hint at something. It's the same reason why we carve stone in upper case. Because the Romans did it that way.
kpw94 4y ago
For gravestone and other stone carvings, i feel it's not purely for the sake of formality, by design roman numerals are easy to carve in stone with a chisel and a hammer... At least before reaching the number 90, which is when the C letter appears. On old buildings the letter U was probably carved as a V for that same reason.
- asveikau 4y ago
  The letter U was carved as V because the original Latin alphabet did not have U. V could be a consonant or a vowel, and later on U came about to denote the latter. Wikipedia says the first use of U was in 1386. The same thing is true of I and J. J is the consonant version, and iirc came about around the fourth century AD.
int_19h 4y ago
Much of the world still uses Roman numerals by convention in some date-related contexts. Most commonly to refer to centuries (as in XIX century), but also sometimes for months in dates: "24.IV.2023" etc. This scheme be handy in that it allows for very terse ways to write incomplete dates, too - e.g. "24 IV" for "April, 24".
Mordisquitos 4y ago
They are also used in many languages to represent centuries, as can be seen in the titles of the 20th century Wikipedia article in different languages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/20th_century