Thursday, July 23, 2009

can you confirm or deny the time?

• Did you ever find out anything about the meridiem fiasco?
• My best resources intimate that post meridiem is technically correct—but nothing just wants to tell us straight-up. The Chicago Manual of Style mentions post meridiem, but says nothing about post meridian at all, for example.
• So post meridiem is most correct and there is no post meridian?
• I am satisfied that meridian only exists on its own (as a noun) and meridiem only exists with a prefix, ante or post, (as an adjective).

1 comment:

Melon said...

It seems PM is Post Meridiem. But, Prime Meridian is the longitudinal line where we start marking off the earth. Post Meridian is used to refer sometimes to the afternoon as well.