What does B.C. or B.C.E really mean?

AD stands for Anno Domini or Year of our Lord referring to the year of Christ’s birth. he era we now call BC used to be known as "a.C.n.", an abbreviation of "Ante Christum Natum", which is Latin for "before the birth of Christ". Why the terminology changed from Latin to English is a matter of speculation. In non-English speaking countries, they tended to use the local language: in French, "avant J.C." (before Jesus Christ); in German, "v. Chr. Geb.", an abbreviation of "vor Christi Geburt" (before Christ's birth). B.C.E is the same as B.C, the government just tried to be politicall correct. it just means before common era. C.E is common era

Just secular humanist trying to remove any reference to Christ from history books.

BC = Before Christ BCE (the politically correct version) = Before the Common Era

B.C. does mean Before Christ. You are correct there. But a few years ago, someone realized that the birth of Christ wasn't a marker for a large number of people in the world -- Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Siks, and a long list of etceteras -- and the scientific community wanted something that would be universally meaningful. So they came up with Before the Current Era. The only trouble with that, is no one is quite sure when the current era begins. Some people still use the birth of Christ as a marker, and date the current era from then. Others move it up a notch and date it from about the 1800s. And frankly, while it may be politically correct, it would be much easier to work with a fixed date, even if they said, on an international scale, TODAY is the beginning of the Current Era. Next year will be +1 CE. That way, everyone would start at the same place and would have something in common to refer to. But, nobody asked me....

BC means "Before Christ", BCE means "Before the Common Era".

You're right about both. "BCE" was developed by scientists who did not want to divide the world in terms of a religious figure. So they are the same timelines, just with different names. "BC" is the older, religious term. "BCE" is the newer, PC term.

BCE = Before the Common Era (recent change) BC = unknown but probably Before Christ Today's calendar has ties to Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century who computed the date of easter. He took the year 1 BC as the beginning of the previous cycle before Christianity. Ruling cycles and eras were common ways to measure dates. Year in Latin is Anno and Lord in Latin is Domini, hence AD. I could not find in my research any reference to what the Latin would have been for beginning of the previous cycle, so I don't know the origin. BC is known as Before Christ in English. At the time of Julius Cesear, their era was known as "from the foundation of Rome" or Ab Urbe Condita in Latin. It was set at what is now 753 BCE. Dionysius did not know the exact date of Christ's birth, but wanted to be sure Christ was alive in 1 AD and it is now assumed the the actual date is between 4 and 7 BCE, probably in September. Common probably refers to the use of 365 days in a year, which is now common except for leap year. The earth orbits the sun every 365 1/4 days approximately. Not everyone in the world is Christian, so new designations were made. CE and BCE

B.C. means "Before Christ" B.C.E. "Before Christian Era" "Before Common Era" C.E. "Common Era" A.D. Anno Domini, year of our lord.

BC means Before Christ BCE is used by non-Christians means Before the Common Era. Ofen used to day to be "politically correct."