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!
i was very astonished how you’ve just discovered the abbreviations a.m and p.m now, i’m arab, i study english as a third language (french is my 2nd language) and our teachers taught us the true full words. and you (english speaker) you’re wrongly taught???????how strange
Now it’s finally clear to you what 12:00 a.m. is? There’s no such animal. There is only one meridan and that is noon. Midnight is neither a.m. nor p.m. and neither is noon. It is much more clear and correct to use n. or nn. and m. or mn.
AM and PM are both confusing and long. Americans like to stick with inconvenient measures. Look at all the imperial metrics they still use – terrible! The 24h clock is so much easier. 14:00 vs 2:00 PM – no possible confusion and shorter. Otherwise the military wouldn’t use it
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