Re: This day

Nope.  I've only heard "bottom" for half past in the set phrase
"bottom of the hour", where the determiner can change ("the hour",
"each hour", "the next hour", etc) but the noun is invariant, not a
time ref.  With "the",  it refers either to the bottom of the current
hour ("coming up at the bottom of the hour"), or the set of all hours'
bottoms ("with news at the top and bottom of the hour")...

On 3/25/07, Jean-François Colson <fa597525@...> wrote:
> Mark J. Reed wrote:
> > On 3/24/07, Eric Christopherson <rakko@...> wrote:
> >>>> On 3/23/07, Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> wrote:
> >>>>>  .........  But "top" and "bottom of the hour" are quite
> >>>>> intuitive to me, relating as they do to the minute hand's
> >>>>> position at the top or bottom of the clock,
> >>>>> respectively.
> >>
> >> I had never heard of or thought of this interpretation until it came
> >> up on this list. To me, the bottom of an hour is the very end of it.
> >> I did some searching and found this: [ http://www.bartleby.com/
> >> 68/98/6098.html ], which says:
> >>
> >>         The top of the hour and the bottom of the hour are
> >> broadcasting and possibly advertising jargon for the beginning and
> >> end of an hour or
> >> half hour of broadcasting time; they also mean "on the hour" and "on
> >> or at the half hour."
> >>
> >> This doesn't really seem to clear anything up for me!
> >
> > Try this instead:
> >
> > http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/bottom+of+the+hour
> >
> > I don't know who might be the ones using it differently.  At least
> > throughout the US - on radio and television, broadcast, cable, and
> > satellite - "the bottom of the hour" means half past.  And that pretty
> > darn precisely.
>
> Interesting. Do you also say "the bottom of 2 o'clock" for half past two?
>

--
Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>