What A.M. and P.M. Stand For
Today I found out what a.m. and p.m. stand for. And no, it’s not, as my first grade teacher told me, “After Midnight” and “Past Midday”. LIES!!! Though, funny enough, not really that far off the translated versions of the Latin words for which a.m. and p.m. actually do stand for.
It turns out, a.m. stands for “ante meridiem”, which is Latin for “Before Midday”; p.m. stands for “Post Meridiem”, which is Latin for “After Midday”.
Interestingly, this finally clears up for me one of the interesting quirks of the 12 hour clock system where time counts from 12 a.m. to 1 a.m. and likewise goes from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., which always seemed odd, but now makes perfect sense given what a.m. and p.m. stand for.
Source:
Since midnight and noon are the meridiems referred to, it is my understanding that the two are neither AM nor PM, they are just 12:00.
Interesting info, and when referring to 12:00, I usually write it as either “noon” or “midnight” vs 12:00pm and 12:00am, or 12 noon/midnight. I still get confused which is which!