TodayI found out what a.m. and p.m. stand for. And no, it’s not, as myfirst grade teacher told me, “After Midnight” and “Past Midday”.LIES!!! Though, funny enough, not really that far off the translatedversions of the Latin words for which a.m. and p.m. actually do standfor.It turns out, a.m. stands for “ante meridiem”, which is Latin for“Before Midday”; p.m. stands for “Post Meridiem”, which is Latin for“After Midday”.
Interestingly, this finally clears up for me one of the interestingquirks of the 12 hour clock system where time counts from 12 a.m. to 1a.m. and likewise goes from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., which always seemedodd, but now makes perfect sense given what a.m. and p.m. stand for.
Source:AskOxford Word Abbreviations
