Greenwich mean time

anneddwen · 1099225. Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:47 pm

Midday and midnight seem to have become unknown terms for a very large percentage of the UK population.
Regularly one sees 12 am. or 12 pm. on news broadcasts, aeroplane timetables and the rest!
The time 12 is neither ante meridiem or post meridiem, not am. or pm., it is M. or Midday, Noon or Midnight.
Why do supposedly educated people not know this fact?

anneddwen · 1099226. Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:48 pm

Puzzling !

CharliesDragon · 1099228. Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:22 pm

Technically you are right, but I think twelve-hour clocks with AM and PM displayed have to show something... Especially before things become digital it would be impractical to have "midday" and "midnight" as extra options. Maybe...

Sort of related, I get a bit annoyed when people say "Twelve noon." Just say "noon," for heaven's sake, it means twelve o'clock in the day.

CB27 · 1099237. Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:54 pm

My guess is that the use of 12am and 12pm has become more popular in use because of the increased use of technology, which requires uniformity in numbers.

'yorz · 1099239. Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:20 pm

I shudder when I see 12:05 am.
Us Continentals can count to 24, so I wanna see 00:05.

djgordy · 1099282. Sun Oct 26, 2014 5:42 am

Alfred E Neuman · 1099295. Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:39 am

ali · 1099300. Sun Oct 26, 2014 6:55 am

Zziggy · 1099306. Sun Oct 26, 2014 7:36 am

To be fair, it's arguably only "meridian", rather than ante or post meridian, for an instant. Even one second past noon is technically post-meridian, surely.

CD - as far as "twelve noon" goes, I can only offer the possible excuse that, while noon implies twelve, twelve does not imply noon. Though I admit that doesn't matter if you just go with "noon" as you suggest.