ad¹

1841, shortened form of advertisement. Long resisted by those in the trade, and denounced 1918 by the president of a national advertising association as "the language of bootblacks, ... beneath the dignity of men of the advertising profession."

1570s, from Latin Anno Domini "Year of the Lord." First put forth by Dionysius Exiguus in 527 or 533 C.E., but at first used only for Church business. Introduced in Italy in 7c., France (partially) in 8c. In England, first found in a charter of 680 C.E. Ordained for all ecclesiastical documents in England by the Council of Chelsea, July 27, 816.

The resistance to it in part might have come because Dionysius chose 754 A.U.C. as the birth year of Jesus, while many early Christians would have thought it was 750 A.U.C. [See John J. Bond, "Handy-Book of Rules and Tables for Verifying Dates With the Christian Era," 4th ed., London: George Bell & Sons, 1889] A.C., for Anno Christi, also was common 17c.

word-forming element expressing direction toward or in addition to, from Latin ad "to, toward" in space or time; "with regard to, in relation to," as a prefix, sometimes merely emphatic, from PIE *ad- "to, near, at" (cognate with Old English æt; see at). Simplified to a- before sc-, sp- and st-; modified to ac- before many consonants and then re-spelled af-, ag-, al-, etc., in conformity with the following consonant (e.g. affection, aggression). In Old French, reduced to a- in all cases (an evolution already underway in Merovingian Latin), but written forms were refashioned after Latin in 14c. in French and 15c. in English words picked up from Old French. In many cases pronunciation followed the shift.

word-forming element denoting collective numerals (cf. Olympiad), plant families, and names of poems, from Greek -as (genitive -ados), a suffix forming fem. nouns; also used in fem. patronymics (Dryad, Naiad, also, in plural, Pleiades, Hyades).