Yes - but what time?

[Slytovhand]

Ok.. this is taking the stupid cake for me!!

We have a pass. It's called a Weekend Pass.

It's used, perhaps surprisingly enough, for the weekend.


SC - not so much sucky, but stupid
Me - not so stupid

Me - Ok, that's one weekend pass for this weekend.
SC - Yes. What time is that from?
me - the weekend pass is valid from midday Friday, until midnight on Sunday.
SC - yes - but what time does it start?
me - it starts at midday on Friday.
SC - Yes, but at what time on Friday?
me - it starts at MIDDAY on Friday.... (at this stage, my co-worker is looking at me and lauging - I wonder why...???)

SC - yes - but at 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock - when?
me - MID-DAY on Friday....... <sigh>

She stopped at that point - not because it sunk into her head, but more because I think I was making her feel stupid...not that I actually was - she was doing a good enough job by herself....

[crazylegs]

Perhaps it may have been prudent on the third occasion of asking to state 12 o'clock or something similar

[rerant]

I can see how they would want to know the specific time. Like if I was going to plan something for 1:00 I wouln't want to have to wait around until 5:00 for my weekend pass to be valid.
Mid-day is pretty vague.

[Evil Queen]

Would this be midday by how the clock strikes? I.e. would it be 12, noon or midday by the sun, approximately 3pm?

I must say I'm in agreement with rerant. It is a little vague.

[iradney]

I dunno, in my book Midday = noon. Just like midnight = 12am.

[Slytovhand]

Ummm... now I'm confused.

Midday is the technical chronological time for 12 noon... I can't get any more precise. If I said midnight (as I did when saying that the pass is valid to midnight on Sunday), is that vague? So, it's not relative to the position of the sun in the sky - midday in winter is the same time as midday in the summer...

[Boochan]

Different terms just make SCs (even most customers) more confused, so for Midday/Noon, I'll just say 12 O'Clock.

[crazylegs]

Ummm... now I'm confused.

Midday is the technical chronological time for 12 noon...

It is, however if it was 12:00 and someone in the street asked you the time, would you say 12:00 or midday?

Personally I would say 12:00.

The person could have been dyspraxic, they deal with 'exacts' if you ask them to go to the store to get some chocolate they will buy you a bar, even though you might have meant several.

If they ask the time they would expect a time (ie 11:00/12:00/whatever) response rather than a generic statement, hence why they could become agitated.

[Crazeyal]

Hey.. sometimes people just hear terms and never get them explained to them. Besides.. Bootcamp am damage brain..

[Bright_Star]

When the big hand is pointing to the 12 & the little hand is also pointing to the 12...lol.
In the Air Force, 1200. In the Army, when you see people file out for chow. In the Marines, when you see the grunts running after a dog with a knife & fork...lol.

[Mark Healey]

You used a colloquialism, which is, by it's very nature, ambiguous. When they asked you to be more precise you should have just given them a number.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Yeah, to me, midday is not a specific time. It generally refers to a stretch of time around late morning - early afternoon. Frankly, I don't know that I've ever heard it in conversation. Maybe it has a technical definition, but most people, at least in my experience, don't use it.

[Andara Bledin]

Same here. Midday might mean 12 noon to you, but for some people it can mean any time between 11am to 3pm.

As far as I know, midnight means 12 at night for everybody, but I don't think I know anyone locally that says "midday" for 12 noon.

^-.-^

[ArcticChicken]

I believe "midday" is like "a couple", while technically "couple" means two, people use it to mean any thing from two to five, similarly "midday" means noon, but people use it to mean anywhere from 11o'clock to 3 or 4o'clock.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Just to add to the confusion, the scramble puzzle the the newspaper the other day had "midnoon" as the answer. Care to guess what "midnoon" means? Midday.