o'clock what does the o means?

Question

when i was a kid they tought me the
it's seven o'clock when we get to b what does the O stsnds for

and also
O’brien someone's name

Answer 1

As has been stated, "o'clock" is short for "of the clock", but note that this has the sense of "according to the clock". The fuller form of the expression is found as early as the late 14th century (in Chaucer).
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970102

But we can perhaps go a bit further, to the origins of the mechanical clock itself and the very word "clock". "Clock" comes from Latin 'cloca' meaning "BELL". It was the term applied to the newer devices in use for measuring time in the thirteenth century. As the word itself suggests, the key feature of these clocks is the bell that chimed the hours In fact, these clocks, often set out in public in a tower to make it possible to notify everyone, did not necessarily have hands. The key thing, then, was notifying people of the HOUR of the day (not the minute, and not, at least at first, the quarter or half hour either). This practice of marking/announcing the hours is echoed by the watchman's call "nine o'clock and all is well." Thus it is scarcely surprising that this way of expressing the time did not (and still does not, except in certain highly formal uses) state anything BUT the HOUR.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clock#A_new_mechanism

So you may picture the situation around 1300 -- the bell in the 'clock tower' strikes ONE time announcing that the hour is "one of ['according to'] the clock"

Answer 2

It's short for seven of the clock. In olden times in Britain, when people didn't have clocks, there would be a night cryer whose job was to go around the town calling: "It's seven (or eight, or nine or ten" of the clock and all's well!"

O'Brien may well have something of the same idea behind it. The Celts were known by their father's name. Surnames were an English imposition. So Sean O'Brien would have been "Sean of Brien" or Sean, son of Brien.

Answer 3

The o stands for "of", so seven o'clock is really seven of clock..

I'll get back to you in a few mins on the O'Brien part.


O is really a word all by itself, signifying "grandson." The apostrophe that now usually appears after it is simply the result of a misunderstanding by English-speaking clerks in Elizabethan times, who took it to be a form of the word "of."

Answer 4

Yes, I concur with the above answers.

O'Brien, O'Connor mean "of Brian", "of Connor". That would mean, I think, that Brien was your dad, or Connor was your dad.

As a previous answer said, people didn't have last names, so, if there were two guys with the same first name, that would be a way of differentiating them.

Say there were two Patricks in the town. One of them would be called Patrick, son of Brien, and the other would be called Patrick, son of Connor. Eventually, those would be shortened into Patrick O'Brien and Patrick O'Connor.

Answer 5

o'clock refers to where the minute hand is at, at the zero spot.
in other words. 7:00. O' refers to the fact that it's only 7 pm with out any minutes.
O'brien is just a way to spell a name.

Answer 6

'of the'
seven 'of the' clock

Answer 7

good question.... no answer. lol.