On Tue, Apr 5, 2011 at 1:45 PM, Marc-Andre Lemburg
<report@bugs.python.org> wrote:
..
> BTW: A "timestamp" usually refers to the combination of date and
> time. The time.time() return value is "seconds since the Epoch".
> I usually call those values "ticks" (not sure whether it's standard
> term of not, but always writing "seconds since Epoch" wasn't an
> option either ;-)).

In Unix context, the term "timestamp" is usually associated with the
various time values that OS stores with the files.  I think this use
is due to the analogy with physical "received on" timestamps used on
paper documents.  Since it is well-known that Unix filesystems store
time values as seconds since Epoch, it is common to refer to these
values as "Unix timestamps".

See, for example:

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/touch.html