Communicating With Friends in Other Timezones
Expressions like "top of the hour" and "bottom of the hour" are common to multi-timezone broadcasts. Learn more about how to communicate with friends in other timezones.
Gretchen McCulloch
Internet Linguist. NYT bestselling author of BECAUSE INTERNET. Cohost @lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics. she/her 🌈
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Two of my favourite expressions for communicating with friends in other timezones are "top of the hour" and "bottom of the hour"
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 9, 2023
I associate them with CBC radio but googling suggests they're common to (multi-timezone) broadcasts in various places and formats -
Yeah, Merriam Webster marks it as US, certainly also in Canada, not sure about other places https://t.co/fWX5xrUqZy pic.twitter.com/hpXzb4S9wl
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 9, 2023 -
I don't think so, my memories are of things like "at five o'clock, five thirty in Newfoundland" but I'd love to see something like:
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 9, 2023
"At the top of the hour (at the bottom of the hour in Newfoundland)"https://t.co/h8ef3XrZpH -
Yes exactly, I also do things like "tomorrow at the current time plus one hour" https://t.co/IeaozrUdnu
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 10, 2023 -
Top of the hour also works well for radio where lots of things like weather reports happen every hour at the same time https://t.co/Qe4osxFiVj
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 10, 2023 -
Ooh, I don't listen to enough of this style of radio to know, but it's very efficient!
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 10, 2023
Meaning, I assume, every ten minutes at :13, :23, etc https://t.co/AL3ykG2jLu -
Ooh, I also have "on the hour/on the half hour" (especially for recurring events, eg guided tours happen every hour on the half hour) https://t.co/Xx4rcY6dAR
— Gretchen McCulloch (@GretchenAMcC) March 10, 2023