Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 March 2

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March 2

"Anno Milit." - a Latin alternative to Anno Domini

In a late 18th century Polish document, with Latin used as the base language, the abbreviation Anno Milit. (or An̄o Milit.) is used throughout as an alternative for A.D. What does Milit. stand for? הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 19:29, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

I'm not certain, but I can find multiple instances in what seem to be German administrative documents from the 17th and 18th century that have "annum militare" (or "pro anno militari" etc.), i.e. "(for) the military year", apparently in a sense similar to "fiscal year", i.e. the time frame for which a year's (military?) expenditure or taxation were calculated. Can't offer you a reference though, unfortunately. Fut.Perf. ☼ 21:10, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

@Future Perfect at Sunrise: Fiscal year definitely makes sense in context (they are community tax records) but the semantic shift of "military" to "fiscal" remains to be explained. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 22:09, 2 March 2020 (UTC)

Just a speculation: could it have something to do with adoption of the Gregorian calendar? That article indicates there was a switch involving Julian/Gregorian in Polish lands in the late 18th century (1795); perhaps the military used one calendar while other spheres (e.g. the church) used another? The dates would only be off by a couple weeks, but still...--William Thweatt ^TalkContribs 01:05, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

One reference [1], speaking of taxation practices in 19th-century Austria: "Alle Jahresabschlusslisten zwischen 1830 und 1863 beziehen sich auf „Verwaltungsjahre“. Das Verwaltungsjahr (vordem auch „Militärjahr“) begann in Österreich mit dem 1. November und endete mit dem 31. Oktober des Folgejahres." ("All annual account lists [in this book] between 1830 and 1863 refer to 'administrative years'. In Austria, the administrative year, previously also called 'military year', began on 1 November and ended on 31 October of the following year.") Another page explaining "Militärjahr" as an administrative unit in central Europe is here: [2]. Fut.Perf. ☼ 09:06, 3 March 2020 (UTC)

@Future Perfect at Sunrise: Fascinating! I should point out (and this addresses your point as well, @WilliamThweatt:, thank you) that I wrote 'Polish' somewhat carelessly: I was referring to a set of German/Latin documents from Austrian Galicia, shortly after the last partition of Poland. הסרפד (call me Hasirpad) 14:06, 3 March 2020 (UTC)