At work today I had a receptionist advise me on the phone that my contact would be back tomorrow at noon-thirty. I knew exactly what she meant (half past noon) and liked the term immediately (it has a certain ring to it), although I'm not sure I've ever heard it used before. It's much less lugubrious than saying "twelve-thirty am" or "twelve-thirty pm". And I can't imagine ever using "midnight-thirty", just doesn't make it to my mind. Has anyone ever heard or used noon-thirty before? Or is this an emerging usage?

Dear WO'N: I was really surprised when I looked at the etymology of "noon" It originally meant 3PM!
noon 7n1n8
n.
5ME < OE non, orig., the ninth hour (by the Roman method, reckoning from sunrise: i.e., 3 p.m.) < L nona (hora), ninth (hour) < novem, NINE6
1 twelve o‘clock in the daytime; midday
2 the highest point or culmination; time of greatest power, etc.
3 [Rare] midnight: now only in noon of night
adj.
of or occurring at noon (midday)

An "hour" was a malleable quantity in Roman times. They were always approximations at the best of time. Wrist sundials couldn't be calibrated to an atomic clock, unfortunately.

Lugubrious? Twelve-thirty (p,a).m., lugubrious? What definition of lugubrious you using, Juan? I suppose if you mean "not so silly-sounding", then I guess it is less lugubrious. It also has the advantage of being unambiguous, a trait not shared by those a.m./p.m. versions that plague some people who have trouble when they tag minutes on to 12:00 noon, which, technically is neither a.m. nor p.m. and, I suppose, if you're in a business that has contacts that are liable to show up at half past midnight, then simple context wouldn't be sufficient to let you know what was meant by the oh so lugubrious twelve-thirty.

Sheesh, Faldo! What, were you scratching at fleas when you read this post?

Don't avoid the question, Juan. What is your defintion of lugubrious? Just asking as a word thang.

we interrupt this nit pick...

I like noon-thirty, but would only use it in fun, with people who like to abuse language. it's a cute usage, but I don't see becoming mainstream... but who knows...

Seems to me the receptionist's got a good idea there. Keeps people from showing up in the wee small hours just after midnight.
I wonder if this confusion about a.m./p.m. was one reason the military adopted a 24-hour "clock."
Half past midnight is zero thirty hours and half past noon is 1230 hours Morning hours are zero one, zero two hours etc.
One in the afternoon is 13 hundred hours, 6 p.m. is 18 hundred hours etc etc

Not just the military. Much of the *rest of the world uses a 24-hour clock.

Anyway, Juan, to answer your question, I'd never heard "noon-thirty" before. I like it!

http://greenwichmeantime.com/info/timezone.htm
for more than you want to know about time all around the world!

this confusion about a.m./p.m. was one reason the military adopted a 24-hour "clock."

Still possiblities for confusion.

There was no such time as midnight in the Navy. No one could figure out if it was 0000 or 2400 and whether it was yesterday or tomorrow. Things would be logged as happening at 2359 or 0001, but never any time between those times.

...no such time as midnight in the Navy. No one could figure (it) out ...

Well --- the *Navy ; )
Twenty-four hundred hours is midnight *exactly*.
Twenty-three 59 hours is one minute before 2400 hours and zero zero one hours is one minute after 2400 hours!

2400

Maybe in *your Navy. When were you in?

My Dad's first cousin was a Commodore in the Navy, "Spuds" Ellis. Other than that single aberration we have stayed faithful to the Army and the Air Force (which began as the Army Air Force) My Dad, brother, husband, son have had no trouble with the 2400 hours concept.
Maybe it's those rough seas ...?

those rough seas

I guess somehow, the idea of having a bare naked 2400 sitting out there all by its lonesome with no 2401 or anything to keep it company was hard to swallow on the one hand and, not being computer types, the idea of starting with 0000 was just as unpalatble. Besides, 2400 would be part of yesterday and 0000 part of tomorrow and the idea that one time could be part of two different days depending on how you referred to it left it hanging in the limbo of unacceptability.

I'm just telling how it was when I was in and on my ship.

Can't say I've heard/used noon-thirty, but along the same lines, my husband uses "0-dark-thirty" to mean ungodly early.

What is your defintion of lugubrious? Just asking as a word thang.

Slower...more weighed-down and drawn out.

In my seagoing naval career, I don't recall ever making a log entry for 2400, but I do recall making 0000 log entries. Similarly, in naval messages, where the DTG (Date Time Group) is the identifying element of the message, I don't recall seeing, for example, a "112400Z" DTG, but it wasn't unusual to see a "120000Z" DTG (the "Z" being Zulu or Greenwich time zone). Now that DTGs are machine generated, rather than manually inserted, I suspect the DTG skips from 2359 to 0000 of the following day. I will have to ask one of my communicator friends.

Slower...more weighed-down and drawn out.

Nice definition. What's the real word for it?

Nice definition. What's the real word for it?

Yes, indeed, and by golly, folks!...your host, Allen "Faldo" Ludden now invites you to play Password!

"long-winded"

http://www.topiclink.com/gameshows/Shows/password

http://www.bartleby.com/61/40/L0284000.html

So what's mournful, dismal or gloomy about 12:30 PM?

something nancyk said reminds me of Robin Williams from Good Morning Vietnam - something along the lines of saying it's o-6-30 - "What's the o stand for? o my god it's early...'

I like noon thirty, but probably wouldn't use it seriously; I'm not that avant-garde!

o-6-30

Military time is given with four digits, leading zeroes not suppressed. Thus 0630, read zero six thirty or oh six thirty.

I've been using that nuance of usage for lugubrious (i.e. heavy-handed) all my life...dunno where I picked it up. So, now, that you've lugged me out into embarrassment in front of the board, you can put a Sammy Sosa cork into your descriptivist pretensions.

perhaps it derives from the context:

exaggerated mournfulness = heavy = heavy-handed

Military time is given with four digits, leading zeroes not suppressed. Thus 0630, read zero six thirty or oh six thirty.

I know that's what military is supposed to look like/be read as, I was just transcribing exactly what Robin Williams says - because he then says 'o my god...' - and I thought that might make it clearer for anyone who may not understand it

For lugubrious I get the mental picture of a bloodhound's face. Which fits well with both mournful and with drawn-out and weighted down.

Which fits well with both mournful and with drawn-out and weighted down.

Thanks, Zed...I needed that.

My brother-in-law, Irishman that he is, insists that it must be beer-thirty when he's ready for a frosty beverage.

beer-thirty

Not much of an Irishman if he associates beer with frosty.

That's myackshully© musicks wording, not his. He really doesn't care if they are warm or cold.

To get back to the Navy aspects of this thread :
The sun is over the yardarm - somewhere!