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Origin and history of C.E.

C.E.

abbreviation of Common Era or Christian Era, a secular or non-Christian alternative to A.D., attested from 1838 in works on Jewish history. Companion B.C.E. is attested from 1881.

Entries linking to C.E.

A.D.

1570s, an abbreviation of Latin anno Domini "year of the Lord." This system of counting years was put forth by Dionysius Exiguus in 527 or 533 C.E., but used at first only for Church business. Introduced in Italy in 7c., France (partially) in 8c. In England, first found in a charter of 680 C.E. Ordained for all ecclesiastical documents in England by the Council of Chelsea, July 27, 816.

The resistance to it might have come in part because Dionysius chose 754 A.U.C. as the birth year of Jesus, while many early Christians would have thought it was 750 A.U.C. (See John J. Bond, "Handy-Book of Rules and Tables for Verifying Dates With the Christian Era," 4th ed., London: George Bell & Sons, 1889.) There is a use of simple a for anno domini in an English document from c. 1400; A.C., for Anno Christi, also was common 17c.

B.C.E.

initialism (acronym) for "Before Common Era" or "Before Christian Era," 1881; see C.E. A more or less secular alternative to B.C.

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    Trends of C.E.

    adapted from books.google.com/ngrams/ with a 7-year moving average; ngrams are probably unreliable.

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    Chester
    A post-Roman name; the place was the base of the Second Legion Adiutrix in the 70s C.E. and later the 20th Legion Valeria...Victrix, but the town's name in Roman times was Deoua (c. 150 C.E.), from its situation on the River Dee, a Celtic river...
    Lorraine
    a part of the lands assigned to Lothair I in the first division of the Carolingian empire at the Treaty of Verdun (843 C.E...Before his death (855 C.E.), Lothair subdivided his lands among his three sons....
    cologne
    The city was founded 38 B.C.E. as Oppidum Ubiorum, renamed and made a colony in 50 C.E. at the request of emperor Claudius's...By 450 C.E. the name had been shortened to Colonia (see colony)....
    Pelagian
    Combated by Augustine, condemned by Pope Zosimus in 418 C.E....
    Scot
    C.E. after the Romans withdrew from Britain, and after the time of Alfred the Great the Old English word described only the...
    Copt
    The majority of the Egyptian churches separated from the Orthodox Church after the Council of Chalcedon (451 C.E.)....
    Orleans
    C.E. in honor of emperor Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275 and reunited Gaul with Rome....
    college
    late 14c., "organized association of persons invested with certain powers and rights or engaged in some common duty or pursuit," especially "body of scholars and students within an endowed institution of learning," also "resident body of ecclesiastics supported by an endowment,"
    euphemism
    1650s, from Greek euphemismos "use of a favorable word in place of an inauspicious one, superstitious avoidance of words of ill-omen during religious ceremonies," also of substitutions such as Eumenides for the Furies. This is from euphemizein "speak with fair words, use words of
    echo
    mid-14c., "sound repeated by reflection," from Latin echo, from Greek ēkhō, personified in classical mythology as a mountain nymph who pined away for love of Narcissus until nothing was left of her but her voice, from or related to ēkhē "sound," ēkhein "to resound," from PIE *wag

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