oh-dark-thirty, oh-dark-hundred

[Mullins, Bill]

"oh-dark-thirty" -- often taken to mean some ungodly early hour, before
sunrise.  Not in OED.

Texas | Port Arthur | The Port Arthur News | 1970-04-10 p. 7 col 7.
"Crawfish Festival to Open" by Ruth Crane
"A variety of dancing is on the program including a Cajun "Fais-Do-Do,"
square dancing, a Cajun snake dance, a citizens band radio club coffee
break and dance in the park at 6:30 p.m. and a Rodair club Cajun dance
on Highway 365 beginning at "dark-thirty." "

"Tobert's Texas" Frank X. Tolbert Dallas Morning News 1977-02-03 > Sec:
D Page 3 col 1.
"The English language is sometimes arranged uniquely in the Hill
Country.  For sample, if someone wants to tell you not to come to a
party until after dark they will write it "thirty dark," meaning 30
minutes after the sun goes down."  [note "for sample" instead of "for
example"]

"The Sked-Busted, Slam-Clicking Stewardess" by Nancy Ballard
The Washington Post (1974-Current file); Dec 6, 1981;
pg. C3 col 2
"A typical sentence might be, "I went illegal for 228 to LAX and crew
sked busted my sequence, but that's okay with me 'cause I'll lay over,
sign in at zero dark hundred, deadhead to base and still get my 4-1/2."
Translation:  "I can't work my scheduled flight because I've been on
duty too long, so I'll stay overnight here, get up early and ride as a
passenger to my home base.  I'll still get paid."


Review 9 -- No Title [review of Terry Kay's 1984 novel "Dark Thirty"]
Jill Grossman
New York Times (1857-Current file); Dec 23, 1984; pg. BR17
"Jesse Wade, the patriarch of a rural Georgia family, returns home one
evening at "dark thirty" (the half-hour between day and night) to find
his entire family brutally murdered."


"NO ANSWERING MACHINE EVER LOOKED LIKE THIS " BY Joan O'C. Hamilton in
Menlo Park, Calif.; 3 December 1990
_Business Week _  Pg. 133
"In sessions that dragged late into what frog employees call
''0-dark-hundred hours,'' Harden and Braund noodled, doodled, and
sketched the possibilities. "


Journal of Electronic Defense, Jan 1991 v14 n1 p8(1)
It's the thought that counts.  (editorial) Hal Gershanoff.
"This column is already a week overdue and I've yet to pack for an
"o-dark-thirty" departure in the morning for a hectic week-long business
trip."

 DUCK HUNTING MEANS MORE THAN CAPTURING THE GAME; [FOURTH Edition]
BILL MONROE of The Oregonian Staff. The Oregonian. Portland, Or.: Dec
16, 1991. pg. C.03
"It is Oh-dark-thirty (as military veterans sometimes recall their
predawn reveilles) and the boat is slicing across the glass-smooth
surface of Scappoose Bay, up the glimmering orange path of a distant
mill light."

New York | Syracuse | Syracuse Herald Journal | 1991-11-10 sec I p. 1
col 1.
"The Hunt Is On, But Where's The Cat?" by Marie Villari
"It is way before dawn when the alarm clock goes off. O'dark thirty, he
calls it. I call it an ungodly hour."