Latin Abbreviations

Kids today – they don't learn Latin any more! And they don't understand the Latin abbreviations that used to be widely used. Here's a quick guide.

AD: Anno Domini or "year of the Lord". It's 2017 AD, or 2017 since Jesus was born in Year One, according Dionysius Exiguus, who worked it out our dating system in the 6th century. Alternatively, you can replace AD with CE (Common Era), and BC (Before Christ) with BCE (Before the Common Era).

am and pm: Before and after noon (ante and post meridian)

c. or circa: about, around

cf: compare, or see also

CV: curriculum vitae, resumé or vita (as the Americans call it). Curriculum vitae means "course of life", and "vita" means life.

et al.: and others (Short for "et alia".)

etc., etcetera: and the rest

e.g., exempli gratia: for instance

MO, modus operandi: method of operating

NB, nota bene: Please note.

pa, per annum: per year

per cent: for each hundred

PS, post scriptum: postscript (And when we wrote letters, we sometimes added a PTO at the bottom, meaning "please turn over".)

QED, quod erat demonstrandum: You can't argue with that!

Re: concerning (It's a word, not an acronym, and can be said "ree" or "ray".)

RIP, requiescat in pace: Rest in peace.

stet: Let it stand.

vs, v., versus: against

Latin words that end in A (larva, vertebra) have plurals ending in AE (larvae, vertebrae).