In one year and out the other.
There are many things that the abbreviation pair A.D./B.C. is not. A.D./B.C. is not a classic heavy metal band, not a proposed reordering of the first four letters of the alphabet, and not short for “After Death/Before Christ”—at least not the first part.
The years B.C. did indeed take place before the birth of Christ (as did about five years A.D., as historians have determined that Christ was probably actually born in 6 A.D.). And B.C. indeed stands for “before Christ.” However, the common misconception that A.D. stands for “After Death” results from applying the convention of its partner in time—non-Latin wording—to an ultimately Latin abbreviation.
First, consider the logic of a supposed “After Death” abbreviation: designating the year of Christ’s birth as the year i After Death would hint that Jesus got a whole lot accomplished in a pretty dam short time. A.D. is actually Latin: Anno Domini, “The Year of Our Lord.”
And as long as we’re casting about with C abbreviations, I will make brief mention of the PC crowd—the politically correct crowd. There’s movement to replace B.C./A.D. with B.C.E./C.E., abbreviating “Before the Common Era/Common Era” in an effort to remove specific Christian reference. This is misguided from a linguistic standpoint. Keep in mind that I’ve been using this space to tell you
that Everything You Know About A.D. Is Wrong, because folk etymology has led people to misinterpret the abbreviation. To the PC crowd, I say, go ahead—substitute another abbreviation, which will in turn be misinterpreted, likely using the very C word you’re trying to replace. In fact, I contend that B.C.E. will be commonly misinterpreted as “Before the Christian Era,” and C.E. as the “Christian Era” by previous association with the phrase “Before Christ”—a designation used for many centuries A.D. and/or C.E. now. That reference is far better hidden in the not-so-easily interpretable A.D. Thus, you will accomplish the precise opposite of the PC goal.
And all that means extra work for me. Likely I’ll have to update future editions of this book to explain that C.E. stands for “Common Era” and not “Christian Era,” in an essay I’ll likely title “PCE: In the Year of the Common Error.”