what's the meaning of "within a year of one another"
I would like to focus here on two of these maps, published within a year of one another
The first map was published, and then the second map was published no more than 365 days later.
It generally implies that the publish-date of the map published second was closer to 365 days later than 30 days later since the speaker would have used a smaller time-scale in that case (but the strict meaning above would still be accurate). For example "within two months of one another" would mean they'd have been published somewhere between 1 and 60 days apart.
Breaking it down:
- "within a year" - no more than 365 days
- "one another" - specifying the relationship is mutual between two (or more) objects/people.
So neither map was published more than 365 days apart from the other (thanks to simple math, it is not possible for one of them to violate this while the other does not).
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You could use further specifications of time - within N months of each other. A year would still hold true, as long as N <= 12 – jimsug May 15 '14 at 20:17
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Exactly - a year includes the same amount of time 2 months would - but then most people would say "two months" to narrow it down. Neither would be inaccurate in that case, obviously. – Alexander May 15 '14 at 20:19
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It can also depend on the more global context of time and time precision (as opposed to accuracy) being discussed. If one is writing about scientific advances and map making, and mentioning various dates between 200 ad and 1930, focusing on century, decade, and year-of-publishing, a comment or footnote might indicate someone else publishing a similar finding "within a year" of the original discovery, even if it was only two months later - otherwise, there would be an imbalance in the precision level of discussion. Author's discretion, of course. – CoolHandLouis May 15 '14 at 23:57
