year of our Lord

• year of the Lord
• year of our Lord Jesus Christ

From Middle English yere of our lord.

year of our Lord (plural years of our Lord)

1. (Christianity) A year of the Common Era/Christian Era; anno Domini; numbered from the once estimated first year for the birth of Jesus Christ.
   • 1751, “An Act for regulating the Commencement of the Year; and for correcting the Calendar now in Use”, in Anno Regni Georgii II. Regis Magnæ Britanniæ, Franciæ, & Hiberniæ, Vicesimo-Quarto. […], Edinburgh: […] the Assigns of Robert Freebairn […], pages 7–8:

     And for the continuing and preſerving the Calendar or Method of Reckoning, and computing the Days of the Year in the ſame regular Courſe, as near as may be, in all Times coming; be it further enacted by the Authority aforeſaid, That the ſeveral Years of our Lord, One thouſand eight hundred, One thouſand nine hundred, Two thouſand one hundred, Two thouſand two hundred, Two thouſand three hundred, or any other Hundredth Years of our Lord, which ſhall happen in Time to come, except only every Fourth hundredth Year of our Lord, whereof the Year of our Lord Two thouſand ſhall be the Firſt, ſhall not be eſteemed or taken to be Biſſextile or Leap Years, but ſhall be taken to be common Years, conſiſting of Three hundred and ſixty five Days, and no more; and that the Years of our Lord, Two thouſand eight hundred, and every other Fourth hundredth Year of our Lord, from the ſaid Year of our Lord Two Thouſand incluſive, and alſo all other Years of our Lord, which by the preſent Supputation are eſteemed to be Biſſextile, or Leap Years, ſhall for the future, and in all Times to come be eſteemed and taken to be Biſſextile or Leap Years, conſiſting of Three hundred and ſixty ſix Days, in the ſame Sort and Manner as is now uſed with reſpect to every Fourth Year of our Lord.

   • 1992, certification of the Twenty-seventh Amendment to the United States Constitution, (image):

     IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, / I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the National Archives and Records Administration to be affixed. / DONE at the City of Washington this 18th day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-two.

   • 2007, Tom Thunderhorse, Charlie Goodbear, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 168:

     Born in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty on September 9, Jeremy had many wonderful friends and family, which sit here with us today.

2. (in secular usage, humorous) Used to emphasize the current year.

   buying CDs in the year of our Lord 2023

• (of the Common/Christian Era): AC, A.C. (anno Christi); a.d., AD, A.D., anno Domini, Anno Domini; CE, Christian Era, Common Era, year of grace

• (antonym(s) of “of the Common/Christian Era”): AC, A.C. (ante Christum); b.c., BC, B.C. (before Christ); BCE, B.C.E.