Comment by ziml77
2 days ago
Nitpick: UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time. The ordering of the letters was chosen to not match the English or the French names so neither language got preference.
2 days ago
Nitpick: UTC stands for Coordinated Universal Time. The ordering of the letters was chosen to not match the English or the French names so neither language got preference.
Universal Time, Coordinated.
This is how I say it in my head.
Now every time I see UTC, I hear the voice of Yoda: "Universal Time, Coordinated it is."
That doesn't quite match what the wikipedia page says:
> The official abbreviation for Coordinated Universal Time is UTC. This abbreviation comes as a result of the International Telecommunication Union and the International Astronomical Union wanting to use the same abbreviation in all languages. The compromise that emerged was UTC, which conforms to the pattern for the abbreviations of the variants of Universal Time (UT0, UT1, UT2, UT1R, etc.).
Follow the citation: https://www.nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/how-utc...
> ... in English the abbreviation for coordinated universal time would be CUT, while in French the abbreviation for "temps universel coordonné" would be TUC. To avoid appearing to favor any particular language, the abbreviation UTC was selected.
It's also the time in Iceland, conveniently
That's an interesting rationale.
Reminds me of when a group is divided into two parts, dubbed group 1 and group A, such that neither feels secondary.
And if you have 3, group 1, group A, and group Alpha. Beyond that, just use colors.
The trick is making sure no one is happy with the final outcome
It also stands for Universel Temps Coordonné.
It's le temps universel coordonné in French.