medieval Europe

Red-Letter Day

Niall O'Donnell 4 Comments

A red-letter day is a day of special significance for some reason or another. Why do we call it a red-letter day?

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Why are they Called Romance Languages?

Niall O'Donnell 19 Comments

You’ve probably noticed that I talk a lot about Romance languages here. These are languages largely derived from Latin. Currently there are five main Romance languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and Romanian.

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AD/BC

Niall O'Donnell 11 Comments

You’re probably familiar with these abbreviations, used to indicate if a year took place either on or after AD 1, or before it. You probably also know that BC stands for Before Christ, as our current calendar system is based on the assumption that Jesus Christ was born in AD 1. What about AD though?

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