vernacular sayings

[likethebeer]

Reminded of odd sayings by cynnerth, I want to note this: I grew up with something outside of Philadelphia that can sound odd to others: when asking the time, instead of saying it's 10:50, saying, "It's 10 of 11." 10 [minutes] of [before] 11.

Instead of 3:45, saying, "It's quarter of 4."

"It's [quarter of an hour=15 minutes] [before] 4:00."

I never thought what that phrase sounds like; I just grew up with it & understood what it meant.

I never realized it was odd until mda asked me years ago what the heck it meant - "quarter of? Quarter of what? If it's 'quarter of 10' I'd think 2.5, so does that mean 25 minutes after?" I slowly migrated away from that, so don't say it much anymore. There was one time when mda & I were on a plane coming into Philly. The flight attendant must have been local, because when she gave us the local time, she said, "the local time in Philly is quarter of 3."

And of course I changed my watch to 2:45.

Comments

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

Kevin's mom says this and it drives him crazy!

where is she from?

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

When mda noted how odd this was, I figured it was something from the Philadelphia area.

Re: where is she from?

[cynnerth.livejournal.com]

She's from eastern Indiana. Close to Cincinnati.

Re: where is she from?

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

My parents are from Chicago & Southern Indiana, although as I wrote, it's common on the east coast. Maybe it's just a regional thing that spread to the eastern part of the U.S.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

I think I've posted about it before. My mom says "quarter of" (but not the minutes of), and I always had to think about it, to determine whether that was a quarter til, or quarter after. Too much work to learn the time.

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

I was just going to add that sometimes you just say, "Quarter of" to mean, "fifteen minutes until the next hour." Made perfect sense to me until it was point out to me that... it didn't make sense to others who'd never heard it before.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

A quarter of the hour is fifteen minutes. So a quarter of 4 is... 3:15?

It just doesn't make sense!

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

That's because you're thinking of the word "of" as meaning, you know, "of". Think of it as the word "before". I don't know why it's defined that way (and I never thought about it before it was pointed out to me), but that's the way it comes out.

[low-delta.livejournal.com]

Does "of" actually mean "before" in any sense?

[likethebeer.livejournal.com]

Another thing is that these phrases about time never seem to denote anything that is over a half-an-hour before the next hour. So, if it's 3:25, you don't say, "35 [minutes] of [before] 4".

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

Well, I grew up on the East Coast (of Wisconsin) and we say "It's a quarter to three."

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

...or "a quarter 'til three"

[kitchenwitch.livejournal.com]

I grew up on the west coast of Wisconsin and we say a quarter til, quarter to, or quarter of. Very versatile people we are, the river-dwellers.

[sirreal13.livejournal.com]

As long as we're talking about time, here's an iPhone app you can view on any PC:

Nude Men Clock (the men are small enough that it's work safe):
http://lovedbdb.com/nudemenClock/index2.html

Courtesy of my straight step brother in Georgia.