[3.12] gh-80421: Correct definitions of time (GH-130984) (#131023)

gh-80421: Correct definitions of time (GH-130984)

Based on the Wikipedia article, UTC is better said to be a successor than a renaming of GTC and language agnostic rather than an English-French compromise.
(cherry picked from commit 98fa4a49fecbac3c990a25ce5d300592dad31be0)

Co-authored-by: Stan Ulbrych <89152624+StanFromIreland@users.noreply.github.com>

diff --git a/Doc/library/time.rst b/Doc/library/time.rst
index ebc1ef1abac23b81f9ded7237ba8b4b0ab65b3b9..cdafe235817e1abd1b8a986266c7184c2c326d43 100644 (file)
--- a/Doc/library/time.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/time.rst
@@ -52,9 +52,13 @@ An explanation of some terminology and conventions is in order.
    single: Coordinated Universal Time
    single: Greenwich Mean Time
 
-* UTC is Coordinated Universal Time (formerly known as Greenwich Mean Time, or
-  GMT).  The acronym UTC is not a mistake but a compromise between English and
-  French.
+* UTC is `Coordinated Universal Time`_ and superseded `Greenwich Mean Time`_ or
+  GMT as the basis of international timekeeping. The acronym UTC is not a
+  mistake but conforms to an earlier, language-agnostic naming scheme for time
+  standards such as UT0, UT1, and UT2.
+
+.. _Coordinated Universal Time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time
+.. _Greenwich Mean Time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwich_Mean_Time
 
 .. index:: single: Daylight Saving Time