# Misunderstood Latin Abbreviations.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [September 16, 2003, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920 "2003-09-16T10:58:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![yoyo3500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/5daacb/32.png) [@yoyo3500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyo3500)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920/21 "2003-09-18T21:00:47Z")

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Iamus alwaysus misunderstoodus whenus Ispeakus inLatinus.

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**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920/22 "2003-09-18T21:05:35Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Dijon Warlock \*  
> \*\*Abbreviation: **A.D.**  
> Misunderstood as: After Death  
> Actual meaning: _Anno Domini_: In the Year of the Lord \*\*

A bit of a hijack, but I’ve never understood why in English we use a Latin expression for the years since Christ’s birth, while we use an English term for the pre-Christ years (“Before Christ”). I’ve noticed that other languages don’t use the Latin at all–Italian, for instance, uses “aC” (“avanti Cristo,” same meaning as in English: “Before Christ”) for the pre-Christ years and “dC” (“dopo Cristo,” meaning “After Christ”) for the “A.D.” years.

Of course, we could always follow the lead of Jewish historians in saying “B.C.E.” and “C.E.” (“Before Common Era” and “Common Era”). That way we’re at least consistent in the language of our abbreviations (as well as kind of removing the Christian overtones of BC and AD).

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**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920/23 "2003-09-18T21:12:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by yBeayf \*  
> \*\*Or, to hear Jack Chick tell it, it stands for “Isis, Horus, Set.” :rolleyes: \*\*

Ah, that would explain why the Christ statue at my church has a falcon’s head…

[Not to mention that the Egyptian “trinity” would more properly be Osiris, Isis, and Horus–kind of silly to include Set in there, when he’s the one who killed Osiris and hacked up his body. But I guess Jack Chick couldn’t think of another Egyptian god whose name began with an “S”]

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**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2003, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920/24 "2003-09-18T22:53:09Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by lindsay.reid \*  
> \*\*I once had someone with a questionable Latin background point out to me that the hospital slang “stat” means “it’s standing.” Which, in a sense, it does. I guess that this guy didn’t realize that the slang “stat” is actually a shortened form of statim and, therefore, has nothing at all to do with standing.
> 
> Not sure if this is a common misconception, but it kind of goes along with these examples. \*\*

I’ll bet he was confusing _stat_ with _stet,_ “let it stand,” used in editing to mean “ignore the editing marks and set the copy as originally written.” Questionable Latin background, indeed. I hope this person didn’t actually WORK in medicine . .

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**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2003, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/misunderstood-latin-abbreviations/201920/25 "2003-09-19T18:09:45Z")

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Someone once asked me why the Latin word “qed” didn’t have a u. I had to think about it before I figured out he was talking about “Q.E.D.”

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