The term ''ante Christum natum'' ( Latin for ''before Christ (was) born''), usually abbreviated to a. Chr. n., a.Ch.n., a.C.n., A.C.N., or ACN, denotes the years before the birth of Jesus Christ. It is a Latin equivalent to the English " BC" ("before Christ"). The phrase ''ante Christum natum'' is also seen shortened to ''ante Christum'' ("before Christ"), similarly abbreviated to ''a. Chr.'', ''A. C.'' or ''AC''. A related phrase, p. Chr. n., p. Ch. n., or ''post Christum natum'' complements a. Ch. n. and is equivalent to "'' Anno Domini''" (AD). In English, these phrases are rare and AC, ACN, and ''ante Christum natum'' are not in the ''Chicago Manual of Style'' (14th edition), the ''American Heritage Dictionary'' (3rd edition), or P. Kenneth Seidelmann's ''Explanatory Supplement to the Astronomical Almanac'' (1992, University Science Books). In other European languages, such as Italian ("a.c." or "a.C." for ''avanti Cristo''), a vernacular version is the standard term. The

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

historian

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

used the Latin phrase ''ante incarnationis dominicae tempus'' ("before the time of the Incarnation of the Lord") in his ''

Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum The ''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'' ( la, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum), written by Bede in about AD 731, is a history of the Christian Churches in England, and of England generally; its main focus is on the conflict be ...

'' (''Ecclesiastical History of the English People'') (Book 1, Chapter 2) of 731 PCN, and thereby became the first author to describe a year as being ''before Christ''.The full phrase may be (please verify) ''ante vero incarnationis dominicae tempus anno sexagesimo'' ("in fact in the sixtieth year before the time of the Lord's incarnation"), which is quoted from the first sentence of Book 1, Chapter 2. Both Dionysius Exiguus and Saint Bede, who was familiar with the work of the former, regarded Anno Domini 1 as beginning on the date of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, yet "the distinction between Incarnation and Nativity was not drawn until the late 9th century, when in some places the Incarnation epoch was identified with Christ's conception, i. e., the

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

on March 25".

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* {{cite book , first1=Bonnie , last1=Blackburn , first2=Leofranc , last2=Holford-Strevens , title=The Oxford companion to the year , publisher=Oxford , date=2003 , edition=Reprinted , orig-year=1999 Calendar eras Latin religious words and phrases Nativity of Jesus

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