The term ''ante Christum natum'' (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for ''before Christ (was) born''), usually abbreviated to a. Chr. n., a.Ch.n., a.C.n., A.C.N., or ACN, denotes the years before the birth of

Jesus Christ Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label= Hebrew/ Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and relig ...

. It is a

equivalent to the English " BC" ("before Christ"). The phrase ''ante Christum natum'' is also seen shortened to ''ante Christum'' ("before Christ"), similarly abbreviated to ''a. Chr.'', ''A. C.'' or ''AC''. A related phrase, p. Chr. n., p. Ch. n., or ''post Christum natum'' complements a. Ch. n. and is equivalent to "''

Anno Domini The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord" ...

''" (AD). In English, these phrases are rare and AC, ACN, and ''ante Christum natum'' are not in the ''Chicago Manual of Style'' (14th edition), the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' (3rd edition), or P. Kenneth Seidelmann's ''Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac'' (1992, University Science Books). In other European languages, such as Italian ("a.c." or "a.C." for ''avanti Cristo''), a vernacular version is the standard term. The

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...

historian

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom ...

used the

phrase ''ante incarnationis dominicae tempus'' ("before the time of the Incarnation of the Lord") in his ''

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict b ...

'' (''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'') (Book 1, Chapter 2) of 731 PCN, and thereby became the first author to describe a year as being ''before Christ''.The full phrase may be (please verify) ''ante vero incarnationis dominicae tempus anno sexagesimo'' ("in fact in the sixtieth year before the time of the Lord's incarnation"), which is quoted from the first sentence of Book 1, Chapter 2. Both

Dionysius Exiguus Dionysius Exiguus (Latin for "Dionysius the Humble", Greek: Διονύσιος; – ) was a 6th-century Eastern Roman monk born in Scythia Minor. He was a member of a community of Scythian monks concentrated in Tomis (present day Constanța ...

and Saint Bede, who was familiar with the work of the former, regarded Anno Domini 1 as beginning on the date of the Incarnation of

, yet "the distinction between Incarnation and Nativity was not drawn until the late 9th century, when in some places the Incarnation

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided ...

was identified with Christ's conception, i. e., the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ang ...

on March 25".

References

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* {{cite book , first1=Bonnie , last1=Blackburn , first2=Leofranc , last2=Holford-Strevens , title=The Oxford companion to the year , publisher=Oxford , date=2003 , edition=Reprinted , orig-year=1999 Calendar eras Latin religious words and phrases Nativity of Jesus

See also

References

Sources