I have been intrigued by the word o'clock since I learned English. Although there is an equivalent to this word in my native language (Spanish en punto meaning on point or on the dot) I want to know the origin of the term o'clock, especially why it has an apostrophe. Is it meant to contract on the clock or something similar?
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2Same as O'Brian, O'Reilly, O'Flanagan... son OF Brian, son OF Reilly...– OneProtonNov 2, 2010 at 16:11
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17It most certainly is not. "O" in Irish names is derived from the Irish word "uaidh" meaning grandson.– Colin FineNov 4, 2010 at 16:26
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2Colin Fine is correct, according to Wikipedia.– Jaime SotoNov 4, 2010 at 16:29
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1Flagged as general reference because a Google search for "o'clock" leads directly to several pages explaining it including three dictionaries.– HugoOct 14, 2011 at 8:11
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2Wiktionary suggests that this is the "shortened form of 'of the clock' or 'on the clock'; that is, 'according to the clock'."– Casey KuballJul 25, 2012 at 23:44
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4 Answers
According to The Time-traveller's Guide to Medieval England 'of the clock' was used to describe time when it was being sliced in 24 equal parts (hours) of the day.
It was used to differentiate the practice, used equally as much, of using solar time, whereby the 7th hour would shift in actual time, however would always be 7/12ths of a solar day after sunrise, and the length of an hour would increase in summer and decrease in winter.
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I would recommend it, it's a great read (and, no I have no affiliation with it, the author or the publisher :) )– johncNov 3, 2010 at 18:46
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3We should totally go back to solar time, at least for work hours. ;)– devios1Jul 10, 2011 at 22:27
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2The last sentence is simple physics: heat expands and cold contracts, so of course the hours get longer in summer and shorter in winter.– JayDec 20, 2011 at 16:30
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2Note that daytime hours expand in summer and contract in winter. Nighttime hours do just the opposite: they're longer in winter and shorter in summer.– MarthaªJul 26, 2012 at 21:49
I believe it's "of the clock".
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2Thanks! I found this among many links explaining the o'clock contraction. Nov 2, 2010 at 15:32
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Yes, o’clock is a contraction of the phrase “of the clock”. Online Etymology Dictionary traces the phrase back to the 1640s; the contraction first appears around 1720.¹
Etymonline says it’s an abbreviation of of the clock, which makes sense phonetically—both the f in of and the th in the are reduced to null in some contexts, and it’s a very common phrase.
The earliest citation they give is 1720, which is fairly late; prior to that, the phrase was spelled out in full—even if it was pronounced the same.
answered Jul 25, 2012 at 23:47
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And it continued to be spelled out in full well into the 19th century (source: just search for something like "ten of the clock" in google books or in some corpus). Jan 10, 2016 at 19:37