> John Nichols wrote: > > > > Did someone with authority change the meaning of "circa" while my > > > back was turned? I always thought it meant "sometime around then" > > > and if so, then "sometime around 1967" can easily be "sometime > > > around 1968" or "sometime around 1966" -- at least until a real firm > > > fact can be found, at which point it becomes "before 31 Jun 1967" or > > > "after 15 Dec 1966" ... and even then, 1967 IS after 1966! > > > > > > Even for a dedicated nit-picker, this seems too small to fret over. > > > > > > Cheryl Singhals <singhals@erols.com> > > > > Well, ca capitalized would be California, or calcium, but this of > > course doesn't apply to your nit. <g> > > Or Carcinoma or Canada or Computer Associates or Cardiology > Association ... > > > > Seriously, though, what prompted the nit, i.e. where did you see > > it? > > In a book, I published a date, which I had extrapolated, as "ca > date1"; I have recently received an irate complaint that that date > is seriously incorrect and that it should have been "ca date1 + 1" > year. > > That's the sort of discrepancy I thought "ca" was intended to cover. > > Cheryl Singhals <singhals@erols.com> It does, and whoever the complainer was, obviously doesn't know what they were talking about.