this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2024
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Showerthoughts

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I hear phrases like "half-past", "quarter til", and "quarter after" way less often since digital clocks have became more commonplace. (midwest.social)
submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It is a one syllable difference, at most. Fif-teen versus Quar-ter-Past. Or Thir-ty versus Half-past. And for-ty-five versus quar-ter-till.

But it is also about precision. If I say "Let's meet up at 4:45" that implies a lot more specificity than "let's meet at quarter to five". The firmer is an exact time people should meet at and the latter is "around that time".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeopkvAP-ag goes into the difference between analog and digital time and what that means with thought processes. But a lot of it boils down to thinking in terms of "parts of a whole" versus "specific times".

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://www.piped.video/watch?v=NeopkvAP-ag

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

it's not like people generally pronounce it fully anyways, it'll come out as "qua'tr" or "quartah" depending on dialect

[–] [email protected] 3 points 9 months ago

All of which is still two syllables?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I'm curious why it got the name digital time.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Because it is expressed as digits (numbers)