When I left the voicemail that said "Please call me at noon" there wasn’t a problem, but when I used the dropbox on the customer service website for a problem I was having, I checked "12 p.m." The question was "Pick a time you will be at the number you gave us–we will call anytime within two hours of the start time." Noon to 2 p.m. sounded like a good choice.
When my phone rang at midnight, I had forgotten about the drop-down box. Sure enough, it was a customer-service representative, outsourced to a more convenient time location. Hearing my sleepy voice, he said, "I wondered why you wanted a call at midnight."
"Noon. I picked noon." I said.
"Oh, no, madam, 12 p.m. is midnight."
"Ummm, no. Actually the PM stands for ‘post meridian,’ which means, after the sun crosses the meridian, or highest part in the sky. That’s noon, so PM is after noon. AM is ‘ante meridian’ and it means before the sun crosses the highest point– noon."
"No, 12 pm is midnight. It is surely after noon when it is dark."
I dropped the issue and got on with my customer service problem, which he handily solved.
The next day, I wondered why the time issue had even come up. A little research showed me the reason–most of the rest of the world uses a 24-hour clock, like the military. A surprisingly few number of nations use the "am/pm" designation.
In most of the rest of the world, after noon, the numbers add onto 12–so 1 pm is 1300 hours, 2:30 pm is 1430, and so on. Midnight is 0000 or 2400, depending on the country. The morning hours are written with four digits–6 am is 0600.
In Swedish (though in Sweden the 12-hour clock is nowadays rarely used) am and pm they are "fm" and "em". Greece uses letter combinations, but like most other languages, formal abbreviations for "before noon" and "after noon" is left for verbal or informal communication.
Who knew? It never occurred to me that the Latin designations weren’t universal. But for those drop-down boxes, I’m going to choose times that lend themselves to fewer mistakes.
About the Author: Quinn McDonald is a writer, certified creativity coach and trainer in business communications. See more of her work at Quinncreative.wordpress.com