Though it may look like a trendy new creation, the origins of the expression Common Era date as far back as the early 1600s. In 1635, derived from the Latin form vulgaris aerae, the expression Vulgar Era emerged, with vulgar in its original meaning of ‘of the common people’. By the early 17th century this expression had begun to take the variant form Common Era, which was introduced more widely by Jewish academics in the mid-eighteenth century.