Vulgar Era

Calque of Latin aerae vulgāris (from vulgāris, from vulgus (“the common people, i.e. those who are not royalty”)), which orginates at least as early as 1615, long before vulgar came to mean “crudely indecent”. Earliest English usage is from 1635 (see quotation).

the Vulgar Era

1. Synonym of Common Era.
   • 1635, Johann Kepler, Adriaan Vlacq, Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633...‎^[1], retrieved 18 December 2007, title:

     Ephemerides of the Celestiall Motions, for the Yeers of the Vulgar Era 1633...

   • 1716, Humphrey Prideaux, D.D., The Old and New Testament Connected in the History of the Jews and Neighbouring Nations, volume 1, Edinburgh: D. Schaw & Co., translation of from Oxford University Press, published 1799, retrieved 14 December 2007, digitized 2007-03-26, page 1:

     This happened in the seventh year after the building of Rome, and in the second year of the eighth Olympiad, which was the seven hundred forty-seventh year before Christ, i. e. before the beginning of the vulgar æra, by which we now compute the years from his incarnation.