M is for meridian (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

This is one area where Military time is better (read "less ambiguous").
12:00:00 is noon.  Midnight can be either 0:00:00 or 24:00:00, but
either way, you know it's gonna be dark.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On
> Behalf Of Joel S. Berson
> Sent: Friday, March 19, 2010 2:18 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: M is for meridian
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
---------------
> --------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: M is for meridian
>
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> --------
>
> At 3/19/2010 02:52 PM, Ann Burlingham wrote:
> >On Thu, Mar 18, 2010 at 11:30 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Mark Mandel <thnidu at GMAIL.COM>
> > > Subject:      Re: M is for meridian
> > >
> >
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> ----------
> > >
> > > To put it another way, all the other X:00 times have the same
> > "_M" suffix as
> > > X:01, X:02...X:59. 5:01 PM comes right after 5:00 PM, not 5:00 AM
> or 5:00 W
> > > or anything else. Calling noon 12 PM, and midnight 12 AM, simply
> extends
> > > this simple consistency to the top of the dial. Insisting in 21st-
> century
> > > English that "PM" can only be applied to times after mid-day --
> post
> > > meridiem (< (*?)medi-diem), and "AM" to times before mid-day, ante
> meridiem
> > > -- amounts to etymological pedantry.
> >
> >I find it ambiguous - 12 comes after 11, so why isn't 12PM midnight?
>
> I don't find it ambiguous -- just confusing and illogical.  They
> should have called the first hour 0 (zero).  After all, by Peano's
> axioms zero is the first natural number.  Think how clear everything
> would have become.  0:00 AM is just after 11:59 PM and just before
> 00:01 AM.  "They" didn't anticipate railroad and airplane timetables.
>
> And the same goes for years -- we would have known exactly when the
> century began.
>
> Joel
>
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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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