User talk:John Quincy Adding Machine/Dec2005

AD/BC

Actually AD <date> is the correct way to write it worldwide. Putting AD afterwards developed as a variant but technically AD <date> has always been correct. To understand, remember what AD means — the Year of Our Lord. So a sentence "In AD 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out" means "In the Year of Our Lord 1666 the Great Fire of London broke out." Putting it afterwards makes no grammatical sense: eg., "1666 in the Year of Lord the Great Fire of London broke out". I presume using AD afterwards simply evolved when people didn't use latin and weren't aware of what it meant, and so they simply applied the letters the same way as they did with BC. But as I say, AD <year> is not American English but in British-English, Hiberno-English, indeed in all forms of English. It just isn't use much any more except by those who are historians or learnt Latin but is not merely correct but actually the correct way to use it. FearÉIREANN\^(caint) 03:52, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Shouldn't we use the most accepted variant? In this case <year> AD? -- Hexagon1 03:57, 4 December 2005 (UTC)