Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Originated in Latin as aerae vulgaris (vulgaris from vulgus: "the common people", i.e. those who are not royalty) at least as early as 1615, long before vulgar came to mean "crudely indecent". Earliest English usage is 1635.
- Common Era
- 1635, Johann Kepler, Adriaan Vlacq, Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633..., retrieved on 2007-12-18:
1716 1799 reprint, Humphrey Prideaux, D.D., The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, Edinburgh: D. Schaw & Co., translation of from Oxford University Press, page p 1 Vol 1:
- This happened in the seventh year after the building of Rome, and in the second year of the eighth Olympiad, which was the seven hundred forty-seventh year before Christ, i. e. before the beginning of the vulgar æra, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation.
Common Era — see Common Era