Proleptic Gregorian and "Proleptik Julian xtime"

INFOMAN Inc. mpereira at istar.ca
Fri Oct 16 03:16:27 UTC 1998


The attached file "prolep.doc" is the extract from the entry in the Oxford
English Dictionary (Second Edition) on Compact Disc.

It may interest you all to know that Oxford records "proleptik" in use in
Medieval times as meaning "predictive, prognostic" or "of the nature of a
pre-assumption; pre-conceived; apriori; axiomatic"...etc.

Nathan Myers is right when he states "proleptic" refers to the future not
the past. The question is how far into the future to predict as can be
noted in the following quotation in Oxford  of pre-POSIX xtime calendar
standardization efforts to determine the date at which God created the
earth.

Usher (1658) "Having placed therefore our heads of this Period in the
Kalends of January, in that proleptik year, the first of our Christian
vulgar account must be reckoned the 4717 of the Julian Period".

This having been noted it is interesting that as we  approach the 2nd
millenium  , we again have a "proleptic" debate.

Jake Knoppers
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