> From: Hohberger, Clive [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, October 11, 2004 11:08 AM
> I agree with you... almost.. I think that AD and BC are
> really ordinal numbers, which denote relative position in a
> series from a 1-origin point. I thought "1 AD" really stands
> for "primo anno domine" (pardon my forgotten Latin) or
> "first year of our lord".
I'm not sure. As I recall (and it's been a long time), Latin ordinals can only be used for small quantities. Therefore I read "anno domine uno". Note that it is properly A.D. 1, not 1 A.D. as usually printed. Also note that the dual scale is bilingual - Latin in the forward direction and English in the reverse!
> Cardinal numbers denote quantity, and may be negative or zero
> as well as positive.
I think that you are confusing a mathematical definition with the more common one which equates cardinal numbers and counting numbers. We do not speak of the "negative third year of the Clinton presidency", because no such year existed, likewise for B.C. and A.D..
/|/|ike
