Midnight Is Morning?

Post Reply New Topic

If Midnight is called 12 in the morning, then how is it midnight? Midnight means middle of the night. So, if technically night starts at 6(or 7) PM, and midnight is 12 AM, doesn't that mean night lasts until 6(or 7) AM? So how can Midnight be the middle of the night if it's 12 in the morning?

I'm sorry I posted this, you're all going to get headaches and then proceed to exterminate every clock in the house. I pity myself for ever discovering this bit of logic. Dam* clocks, always confusing me.

To add to the confusion, midnight is 12 p.m. in
Spanish, or vice versa. Whichever is the opposite of English.

Well, I believe 12 in the morning is more of a colloquial phrase which people use. Midnight is also a semi-colloquial term I believe. And despite the confusion and seeming-contradiction, both are accurate, because morning overlaps both night AND day. However, to stay away from these confusing terms one simply uses if one likes (and hope to god the other silly person knows their a.m.'s and p.m.'s):

post meridiem and ante meridiem.


Quothe Online Oxford as to the origins of a.m. and p.m.:

Though usually to side-step all of this nonsense I use 24-hour time instead.

My guess since I'm no astronomist

Noon means the sun reaches it zenith point known as the meridian, it is at the highest point in the sky. Therefore morning is ante meridiem or before the meridian. Afternoon and evening is post meridiem or after the meridian when the sun comes down agian.

Midnight is when the sun hits its nadir point, or the lowest point of the earth at where you are located. After that the cycle begins again and now you are at AM agian.

We use morning so much when associating it with AM regardless if it is dark or light since we have been so accustomed to it.

Night and day don't have that much to do with AM and PM. But my guess is that morning(usually 6AM) which starts the day, and evening(6PM) which ends daytime starts nighttime begin halfway between the highest and lowest points of the sun.

This is why languages such as Spanish and French have simpler words for these types of scheduling days...

6AM go Noon = Mañana (Matin), Noon = Mediodía (Midi), Noon to 6PM = Tarde (Après-midi), 6PM to Midnight = Noche (Soir/Nuit), Midnight = Medianoche (Minuit), 12AM to 6AM = Madrugada (?)

But you will still hear Mañana at 12:30 or 2 in the morning instead of Madrugada.

So by using the vocabulary in any language and to make it short....

Day is from 6AM to 6PM or when the sun is shining regardless of hours.
Night is from 6PM to 6AM or when it is dark.
AM and PM are separated by the suns highest and lowest points from the ground.

My own nickels worth

And i don't give a stuff either way to be honest. I really dont. As long as it doesn't affect the idea that its the middle of the night as such.......... and therefore the idea that it is still dark (normally, don't go citing the north and south poles), i dont care.

Yes, I've never quite understood it. Makes very little sense if you ask me.

• Dawn (varies)
• Morning (roughly 5:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon)
• Noon (12:00 noon, always)
• Afternoon (12:00 noon to 5:00 P.M. roughly)
• Evening (roughly 4:00 P.M. to 9:00 P.M., varies with the season)
• Dusk (varies)
• Night (roughly 6:00 P.M. till 5:00 A.M.)
• Midnight (12:00 midnight, always)
• Late Night/Early Morning (i.e., the Predawn Hours) (11:00 P.M. to 5:00 A.M.)

I will tend to think of a time like 4:30 A.M. as very late at night if I'm woken up while in the middle of my night's sleep or very early morning if I have to get up very early. It all depends on when you go to bed and get up and also when the sun rises and sets.

I thought night and evening were the same thing?

I really don't think about that very much.

In my understanding, evening is the earlier part of "night" when people are generally still awake (not taking into account a person who happens to be a night owl).