2006-10-13 10:09:57 · 5 answers · asked by stlllllllll 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Other - Society & Culture
I was wondering too, so I found the answer in another Yahoo Answers post and copied it for you.
A.M./P.M.-“AM” stands for the Latin phrase Ante Meridiem —which means “before noon”—and “PM” stands for Post Meridiem : “after noon.”
S.O.S.-Common belief is that SOS stands for "Save Our Ship" or "Save Our Souls" or "Stop Other Signals" or "Stomp Out Stupidity" or "Sale on Socks." (Not really, I made those last two up.) In fact, SOS in not an acronym and it doesn't represent anything at all.
Samuel Morse devised his telegraph code in 1835, using combinations of dots and dashes that he thought would be easy to memorize. The first distress signal was CQD, the "CQ" for a general notice that a message is coming, and "D" for "danger" or "distress." However, this was cumbersome. In Morse Code, CQD was: -.-. --.- -..
So CQD was dropped.
In 1908, an international committee tried to come up with a distress signal that would be easy to remember during a crisis, and could be transmitted by an amateur with only rudimentary knowledge of Morse Code. They decided a simple combination of threes: three letters, each represented by three marks, since three is a universally favored number. Well, at least in Western cultures.
In Morse Code, the only letters represented by three identical marks are O (three dashes) and S (three dots). The committee toyed with OSO, but dashes are longer electrical signals to transmit than dots. An urgent message needed to be broadcast as quickly as possible and use as little power as possible, and so SOS became international standard.
2006-10-13 10:18:22 · answer #1 · answered by babblefish186 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Am is Ante Median, pm is post median. [before noon and after noon]
RSVP is french: Responde Si Vous Plaite.
SOS has been variously interpreted as Save Our Souls or Save Our Ship.
2006-10-13 10:22:29 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Respondez s'il vous plait which is French for Please Respond. If somebody has sent you an invitation with "RSVP" on it, they want a reply from you so that they know whether you will be attending or not.
2016-05-21 23:38:53 · answer #3 · answered by Lori 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
RSVP is a French word adopted in the English language. It means "Respond sil vous plait", please respond... S.O.S means "save our souls."..
2006-10-13 10:13:40 · answer #4 · answered by dreamdewberrys 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
RSVP mean respondence ce vous ple (french for please respond) and SOS means Send Out Search. No idea on am and pm
2006-10-13 10:14:15 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋