Meridiem: more than you wanted to know

Subject: Meridiem: more than you wanted to know
From: "Mark L. Levinson" <mark -at- MEMCO -dot- CO -dot- IL>
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 13:02:47 +0200

If I understand Dave Hailey correctly, noon is "meridies," or
mid-day, in the nominative case.

A.M. and P.M. are "ante meridiem" and "post meridiem" because
in those phrases "noon" takes the accusative case as the object
of a preposition ("before" / "after").

"Meridian" is an English word that can mean noon but more usually,
I think, refers to a pole-to-pole line on a map.

Mark L. (for "Little Latin and less Greek") Levinson
nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il

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