{"id":30961,"date":"2014-03-21T00:11:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-21T07:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/?p=30961"},"modified":"2014-03-21T00:08:17","modified_gmt":"2014-03-21T07:08:17","slug":"say-oclock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.todayifoundout.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/say-oclock\/","title":{"rendered":"Why We Say “O’Clock”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"clock\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The practice of saying \u201co\u2019clock\u201d is simply a remnant of simpler times when clocks weren\u2019t very prevalent and people told time by a variety of means, depending on where they were and what references were available.<\/p>\n

Generally, of course, the Sun was used as a reference point, with solar time being slightly different than clock time. Clocks divide the time evenly, whereas, by solar time, hour lengths vary somewhat based on a variety of factors, like what season it is.<\/p>\n

Thus, to distinguish the fact that one was referencing a clock\u2019s time, rather than something like a sundial, as early as the fourteenth century one would say something like, \u201cIt is six of the clock,\u201d which later got slurred down to \u201csix o\u2019clock\u201d sometime around the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. In those centuries, it was also somewhat common to just drop the \u201co\u2019\u201d altogether and just say something like \u201csix clock.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the form of \u201co\u2019clock\u201d particularly increased in popularity around the eighteenth century when it became common to do a similar slurring in the names of many things such as \u201cWill-o\u2019-the wisp<\/a>\u201d from \u201cWill of the wisp\u201d (stemming from a legend of an evil blacksmith named Will Smith, with \u201cwisp\u201d meaning \u201ctorch\u201d) and \u201cJack-o\u2019-lantern<\/a>\u201d from \u201cJack of the lantern\u201d (which originally just meant \u201cman of the lantern\u201d with \u201cJack,\u201d at the time, being the generic \u201cany man\u201d name. Later, either this or the Irish legend of \u201cStingy Jack\u201d got this name transferred to referring to carved pumpkins with lit candles inside).<\/p>\n

While today with clocks being ubiquitous and few people, if anybody, telling direct time by the Sun, it isn\u2019t necessary in most cases to specify we are referencing time from clocks, but the practice of saying \u201co\u2019clock\u201d has stuck around anyway.<\/p>\n

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