Why do we use BC (English) for before Christ, and then AD (latin) for afte Christ?

Question

Was wondering why one is English and the other latin? Surly it should be Pre Domini or Christi or...something?

Answer 1

BC is as you stated; AC for "after Christ" would be confusing - after Christ's birth, ascension into Heaven, or something else. After Christ was born would be ACWB - bit lengthy, so "(in) the year of our lord" - anno Domini - AD is neat. You can't use the Latin for "before our lord" - ante Dominum - 'cos this would be abbreviated to AD as well.

Answer 2

I am not sure why the custom become to use an English term abbreviation for BC, however I think I can shed some light as to why we do not say before Christ, or Pre anything. Anno Domini refers to the year of Our Lord, Domini being the Latin term for God- not specifically Christ, Cristos. The inference was that from that point in time, God was with us in the form of Christ. Because God has always been, there is no time "before" God. Using that sort of term to precede time designated prior to AD would suggest that, so it was not used. The term BC was not actually used until a much later time, when people wanted to refer to the years prior to Christ's birth. Since by then Latin had been replaced by English as the language of scholars, I suppose they would have applied a term that would have been easily understood- a time before Christ, but not before God, to be abbreviated BC. They probably retained the AD simply out of habit, as it was already in widespread use and easily understood. Nowdays, it is more popular to use BCE for that same time frame, in deference somewhat to the non-Christians. Though why it would be more acceptable escapes me, since we are still making reference to a Christian era, and using a calendar redesigned by the Catholic Church, complete with months named after Roman gods and emperors, with days of the week named for old Norse gods. If someone finds the BC and AD designations objectionable, you have to wonder why they don't object to the entire calendar system now in use. After all, there is a Hebrew calendar, an Arabic calendar, an Oriental lunar calendar, and probably a few I don't even know about.

Answer 3

AD is as you say from Latin, but BC is from Ancient Greek not English. Definition below.

Anno Domini (Latin: "In the year of (Our) Lord[1]"), abbreviated as AD, defines an epoch based on the traditionally-reckoned year of the conception or birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Similarly, Before Christ (from the Ancient Greek "Christos" or "Anointed One", referring to Jesus), abbreviated as BC, is used in the English language to denote years before the start of this epoch.

Answer 4

ok now. i'm a heritage instructor. Draw a horizontal line on a chunk of paper. contained in the midsection is a mark. Label it 0 (0). on the left write, till now Christ. (BC) on the right, write Anno Domini (ad)(year of our Lord) "0" is even as Christ became born, so write JC there. about an inch to the right, make a mark and label it ad 33. it really is even as Jesus died, so make a touch go there. thanks to the right, make a mark and write ad 2008. Write ME there, because it really is the position you're. it really is the way it quite works. ad skill year of Our Lord, not After lack of existence. even as writing dates, you in a lot of situations write 500 BC or ad 500.

Answer 5

We stopped speaking English and started speaking Latin in the year 0, then switched back again in 1972 but all the calendars up to the year 3000 had been printed so it would have been too costly to change the date system.

Also, how did they know it was 55BC when Julius Cesar was "on the throne"? Could Romans see in to the future back then?

Answer 6

Well...

B.C. is the acronym for Before Christ; we use it to denote all of the years before Christ was born.

A.D. does not stand for "after death" as many people think; it stands for "Anno Domini," which is Latin for "in the year of our Lord."

This drove me nuts when I was younger; I always asked what they called the years when Christ was alive.

Answer 7

There is talk by the oh so polictally correct government types about removing the BC and AD titles and replacing them with something else.

Answer 8

Unfortunately I don't know the answer to your question. However, in the school that I used to be an assistant at all the worksheets etc were changed from BC to BCE (Before the Common Era) to be more politically correct in todays world. :S

Answer 9

AD is after death Anno Domini

Answer 10

Who Cares?