12.0144 OED's trustworthiness; BC/CE

Humanist Discussion Group (humanist@kcl.ac.uk)
Thu, 23 Jul 1998 12:53:04 +0100 (BST)

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 12, No. 144.
Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
<http://www.princeton.edu/~mccarty/humanist/>
<http://www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/>

[1] From: Patricia Moran <pjmoran@tsufl.edu> (25)
Subject: Re: 12.0138 e-OED

[2] From: Hartmut Krech <kr538@zfn.uni-bremen.de> (14)
Subject: An ABC of BC/CE ?

--[1]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1998 10:15:53 -0500 (CDT)
From: Patricia Moran <pjmoran@tsufl.edu>
Subject: Re: 12.0138 e-OED

RE: [1] From: Norman Hinton <hinton@uis.edu> (36)
> ----------
>The OED is an untrustworthy source?

Considering the fact that we live in a world in which language is always
changing. . .where girls are called "dudes" and "G.I. Jane" (American movie)
has a protagonist that throws out one-liners anatomically-impossible to
achieve, just to prove she's good at male-bonding.

where Walt Whitman and many historical others elevate slang to the sublime. .
.. . .and are proved right about the power of these words from the unwashed
masses. . .

where we keep inventing terms like cyberspace and astronaut, death metal and
punk rock. . .

The OED isn't perfect, but it's better that than some "trustworthy" source
which people have operated on to take out the messy bits.
-=-=-=-

Pat Moran, Associate Chair, Troy State University--Florida Region's General
Studies Department and Ph.D. student at Florida State University
-=-=-=-
Patricia J. Moran, TSUFL Regional Office, 81 Beal Parkway,
Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548. . .
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--[2]------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1998 09:06:09 +0200
From: Hartmut Krech <kr538@zfn.uni-bremen.de>
Subject: An ABC of BC/CE ?

I remember an extended discussion on AEGEAN-L two or three
years ago with very well founded arguments to discard
the acronyms AD and BC or BCE altogether on ideological
grounds (the Aegean being a contact area for a multitude
of cultures) in favour of the symbols "-" and "+"
placed before the year numbers to designate years before
or after the begin of our time reckoning. If I remember
well, the discussion was left undecided because of
difficulties surrounding a year "0". And who could it be
to initiate such a reform which would do no harm watsoever
to any serious religious belief ?

Dr. Hartmut Krech
Bremen, Germany
The Culture and History of Science Page
http://www1.uni-bremen.de/~kr538

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