In the study of historical events, we sometimes encounter various time periods such as 19th Century, 1066 AD, 1300 BC and the 1920s. Modern writers are now using abbreviations “BCE” and “CE”. What does all of this mean?
I recently read a statement by a writer citing 18th Century for an event he said occurred in 1845. Was that correctly used? No. As a broader question, why does the Eighteenth Century refer to the years in the seventeen hundreds? Blame it on a man with a familiar name –Jesus Christ, who lived more than 2000 years ago during the period 1 1 to99 AD. We don’t’ have a “Zero Century” and that period was called the First Century of the “Year of our Lord”. The next century covers the years 100 to 199 and was called the Second Century, and so on. Therefore, we live in the 21st Century. Did you notice when a specific century is named, the letter “C” in the word century is capitalized? [It becomes a proper noun.]
Let’s clear up a little grammar. The question is, “What is the purpose of the apostrophe in the often-used terms for years such as the eighteen hundreds? Is it the1800’s or 1800s? Apostrophes are mainly used to denote possession (e.g.; the cat’s meow) and omission of letters in a word (e.g.; I can’t believe). Also, try these out: “The 1800s [a plural noun] were turbulent years”. “This is an 1800’s [a noun masquerading as an adjective] book.” Am I correctly using the apostrophe?
Grammarians (both amateur and professional), please help us get the year right.
When did the calendar begin? Let’s start with years as measured from an event some 2000 years ago in Asia. For a starting point, writers began to use the birth year of Jesus – or, was it his birth year? Nope! Jesus’ birth year is not stated in the bibles or in any historical sources, and the evidence is too meagre to allow definitive dating. However, most biblical scholars and ancient historians believe that his birth year was around 4 to 6 BC. BC means “Before Christ” and AD stands for “Anno Domini”, a Latin term which means “Year of Our Lord” in English. So, AD did not start from his birth year; rather, it started 4 to6 years later. In year 1 AD, Jesus was already 5 to 7 years old. Christians observe the birth of Christ on December 25th. Was he born 2024 years ago? No; he was born 2028 to 2030 years ago. I’m sorry to bring you this bad news. Or am I wrong?
The more-recent terms BCE and CE stand for “Before Common Era” and “Common Era” and are alternatives to BC and AD respectively. I hate to see “BC” and “AD” leave us. I understood them. Sometimes we can’t leave well- enough alone. I don’t understand the use of the word “Common”. Common to what?
You guys who impose new words on us need to try again. “CE” and “BCE” don’t seem to relate to any event our brains can use as a starting point. And, try to define BCE and CE without using words like “Gregorian calendar” or “Jesus Christ” or “Anno Domini”. All are related to the same event – the birth of Jesus Christ. Did you succeed in getting God (our “Lord”) out of the time equation? No! Why make the change? You, who introduced these new terms, are a pathetic lot. Your appetite won’t be sated until you have neutered r every word in the English language and excluded every religious connotation; words that have given color to the English language will disappear from our lexicon.
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