What’s the Meaning of “o” in “o’clock”? “O” stands for “of the” clock. When we refer to an hour as “o’clock,” we mean that it is a specific hour “according to the clock.” “It is almost four o’clock,” for instance, has the same meaning as “it is almost four according to the clock.” Nevertheless, native English speakers do not use the entire phrase “of the clock.” Use “o’clock,” the abbreviated form, at all times.
The term is a contraction of the now-obsolete phrase “the clock,” which comes from the Middle English word “clokke.” Use it to describe a direction by making reference to an imaginary clock, such as “I saw the deer run by right there, at twelve o’clock.”
In the past, there weren’t many clocks. The majority of people used the sun’s or moon’s position to tell the time. There are situations in which the times given by these two bodies differ from those given by a clock. As a result, it was necessary to distinguish between the time indicated “of the clock” (o’clock) and the time that the great majority of people in a certain area use.
Why does “o’clock” have an apostrophe? O’clock is an abbreviation of the phrase “of the clock,” so it has an apostrophe. The apostrophe, like other contractions, substitutes missing letters or words in longer sentences or phrases. The apostrophe in “don’t” replaces the letter “o” in the word “not,” for instance, and the apostrophe in “you’ll” replaces the letter “wi” in the word “will.”
Content for this question contributed by Jill Madison, resident of Walnut, Los Angeles County, California, USA
