Does B.C. mean anything besides "Before Chirst"?

Dear Linda, 

Yes, there are several other meanings, the most common of which are: 

British Columbia (part of Canada)

Bachelor of Chemistry. 

The Acronym Finder lists 132 (which means 129 more than those already
mentioned) meanings to BC:
<http://www.acronymfinder.com/af-query.asp?p=dict&String=exact&Acronym=BC> 

Search Strategy: 
When you search for a term on Google, you have an opportunity to look
up definitions in a dictionary (they appear as a link above the
results, on the right side of the blue bar). If you read the
definitions to the end, you reach Acronyme Finder, which lists many
(but I guess, not all) abbreviations possible.
See more about it: 
Google Web Search Features - Definitions
<://www.google.com/help/features.html#definitions> 

I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

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Request for Answer Clarification by lindafairchild-ga on 03 May 2004 19:26 PDT

Sorry, maybe I should have been more clear in my question:)  I am
teaching a class and we were wondering since A.D. means Anno Domini,
did B.C. mean anything over than Before Christ or Before the Common
Era, something in Latin perhaps?  WE just found it odd that A.D. was
in Latin and B.C. was such a simple term.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 04 May 2004 09:23 PDT

Dear Linda, 

No, I didn't find any Latin meaning to the term "B.C" that would suffice here. 

By the way, the "politically correct" term today is B.C.E - "Before Common Era".

Good job, thanks for helping!

Yes, of course, those are my initials!

Bryan C

Well, how about some added confusion?

My Latin Dictionary contains a Calendar which shows the abbreviation
'a.d.' and this is explained as 'ante diem' which I assume to mean
'before days'.

So would the Romans themselves have referred to Anno Domini?

Maybe not, because the Romans did not adopt Christianity until many,
many years after St Paul founded the sect.

Of course, Latin was the language of the Roman Catholic Church and the
term Anno Domini could have originated much later.

My guess is that the RC Church was mainly interested in events
subsequent to the assumed date for the birth of Christ. (The Hebrew or
some other Calendar may have been used for earlier years.)

Later, interest in earlier events would be in the hands of more
secular types such as historians and archeologists who may have
conjured up the terminology of BC.

Me? I have my parents to thank.

BC

My parents referred to "BC" as "before children".

Brian, thanks for the comment, but I have one for you:)

I know tgat Caesar started the Julian calendar and that Crhist's birth
happened to coincide with it.  But, I still wonder if the RC made up
Anno Domini, why did they just say "Before Christ" instead of
something more complicated.  The "ante diem" note is interesting, I
may have to take a look at that more.

Linda

The Latin equivalent to B.C. would be AC or ACN ("ante Christum" or
"ante Christum natum"):

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/ACN

http://www.nebulasearch.com/encyclopedia/article/Common_Era.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01022a.htm

http://www.fact-index.com/a/an/anno_domini.html

On Dionysius Exiguus:
http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/node3.html#SECTION003130000000000000000