M is for meridian

[Mark Mandel]

That's the other argument. But the argument from consistency within the hour
seems to be winning.

m a m

On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 2:52 PM, Ann Burlingham <ann at burlinghambooks.com>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
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > 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?
>
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