{"id":4707,"date":"2024-12-23T12:50:14","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T12:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2024-12-23T12:50:16","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T12:50:16","slug":"what-does-the-o-in-oclock-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/archives\/4707","title":{"rendered":"What Does the \u201cO\u201d in \u201cO\u2019Clock\u201d Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class='\"entry-header' entry-header-01>\n<h2 class='\"entry-subtitle' g1-gamma g1-gamma-3rd>One of the language\u2019s subtle mysteries is the term o\u2019clock. While it\u2019s used every day, few stop to wonder: What does the \u201cO\u201d actually mean?\n\n<div class='\"g1-content-narrow' g1-typography-xl entry-content>\n<div class='\"code-block' code-block-15>\n<div class='\"cnx-ad-container' cnx-full-height>\n<div class='\"cnx-ad-bid-slot\"' aria-hidden='\"true\"'>\n<div class='\"cnx-ad-slot\"'>\n<div class='\"cnx-ad-slot\"'>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Others, like tear and tear or wound and wound, are spelled the same but pronounced differently depending on the context.\n</p><p>Add in peculiar idioms like \u201ccold turkey\u201d or \u201craining cats and dogs,\u201d and it\u2019s no wonder English can confound even its native speakers, let alone learners\n</p><h4>The Role of the Apostrophe\n</h4><p>Quick grammar refresher: Apostrophes serve two main purposes.\n</p><p>They indicate possession, as in \u201cchildren\u2019s toys\u201d or \u201cthe director\u2019s film,\u201d and they replace omitted letters in contractions like \u201cdon\u2019t\u201d (do not) or \u201cthere\u2019s\u201d (there is).\n</p><p>The apostrophe in o\u2019clock serves the latter purpose, signaling that part of the original phrase has been dropped\u2014though many people have forgotten what that was.\n</p><h4>What Does \u201cO\u2019Clock\u201d Mean?\n</h4><p>The \u201cO\u201d in o\u2019clock stands for \u201cof the,\u201d according to the Britannica Dictionary. So when someone says \u201cit\u2019s six o\u2019clock,\u201d they\u2019re actually saying \u201cit\u2019s six of the clock.\u201d While this phrasing might sound unusual to modern ears, it was once a common way of saying \u201caccording to the clock.\u201d\n</p><h4>The Origin of \u201cOf the Clock\u201d\n</h4><p>This phrase emerged when mechanical clocks became widespread in Europe during the late 1300s.\n</p><p>Before then, people relied on sundials and shadow clocks to track time.\n</p><p>But as analog clocks became the standard, the phrase \u201cof the clock\u201d gained traction to specify timekeeping based on these devices.\n</p><h4>How \u201cOf the Clock\u201d Became \u201cO\u2019Clock\u201d\n</h4><p>As is typical with language, the lengthy\u00a0phrase\u00a0\u201cof the clock\u201d was eventually shortened to o\u2019clock for simplicity. People used the phrase frequently when telling time or scheduling events, and the abbreviated version made conversations smoother.\n</p><p>\u201cBecause it\u2019s a set phrase for telling time, it\u2019s not surprising that it got shortened over time as we started saying it faster,\u201d explains Anne Curzan, PhD, a professor of English, linguistics, and education at the University of Michigan, in an interview with Reader\u2019s Digest.\n</p><h4>The Evolution of Words\n</h4><p>Slang and contractions often develop naturally as people skip over less significant parts of phrases in casual speech. Michael Adams, PhD, a professor of English and linguistics at Indiana University, elaborates: \u201cIt\u2019s unusual for English speakers to retain many words in unstressed positions in a phrase. In \u20181 of the clock,\u2019 you\u2019ve got two unstressed words: of and the. That creates an invitation for abbreviation. So instead of saying \u20181 of the clock,\u2019 it becomes \u20181 o\u2019clock.\u2019 This rhythmic alternation is typical of English.\u201d\n</p><h4>The Role of Writing in Standardization\n</h4><p>As literacy spread, written language played a significant role in cementing o\u2019clock as the standard. The more people wrote it, the less frequently the full phrase of the clock was used. \u201cBecause these phrases emerged early enough, the spelling adapted to match the pronunciation,\u201d Curzan explains.\n</p><h4>Jack-o\u2019-Lantern and Other Contractions\n</h4><p>O\u2019clock isn\u2019t the only contraction that has outlived its original phrase. Take Jack-o\u2019-lantern, for instance. The \u201cO\u201d once again stands for \u201cof,\u201d making the full term \u201cJack of the lantern.\u201d\n</p><p>The phrase originated in Britain in the 1800s, where it referred to a night watchman or any man carrying a lantern, according to Merriam-Webster. At the time, strangers were often dubbed \u201cJack\u201d or other generic names, much like \u201cJohn Doe\u201d today. It wasn\u2019t until the 19th century that the term Jack-o\u2019-lantern came to describe the carved pumpkins we know today.\n</p><h4>The Legacy of Contractions in English\n</h4><p>Contractions like o\u2019clock highlight how language evolves over time. Today, we\u2019re so accustomed to apostrophes that we often forget they replace omitted words. Phrases like o\u2019clock, ne\u2019er-do-well (never-do-well), and will-o\u2019-the-wisp (will-of-the-wisp) reveal the rich history behind the English language\u2014quirks and all.\n</p><p>Despite its many exceptions and eccentricities, the evolution of English offers much to appreciate, even as its\u00a0grammar\u00a0sometimes leaves us scratching our heads. (Why are there so many exceptions to \u201cI before E except after C\u201d?)\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"</p><p>One of the language\u2019s subtle mysteries is the term o\u2019clock. While it\u2019s used every day, few stop to wonder: What does the \u201cO\u201d actually mean? Others, like tear and tear &hellip; \n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4709,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/4709"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scenicwhispers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}</p></div></div></div></div></div></div></h2></header>