meaning - How should "midnight on..." be interpreted?


From what I understand, the word "midnight" is usually interpreted incorrectly.


Midnight is written as "12am" which would imply that it's in the morning. Therefore, it should be at the start of the day. On the other hand, both Dictionary.com and the Oxford Dictionary define it as "twelve o'clock at night".


Some examples:



  1. "Midnight on the 10th of December"

  2. "Midnight Thursday"

  3. "Midnight tonight"


are usually interpreted as:



  1. Straddling the 10th and the 11th of December

  2. Straddling Thursday and Friday

  3. Straddling today and tomorrow


but should they technically mean:



  1. straddling the 9th and the 10th of December?

  2. straddling Wednesday and Thursday?

  3. This is much less clear. Technically is there a midnight "tonight", or is midnight "tomorrow morning"?


What do you think? How should "midnight" be interpreted?



Answer



It's a matter of convention, and the informal convention is that "midnight on the 10th" is more commonly the night between the 10th and the 11th. But the term is awfully ambiguous, and people do use it both ways.


(When I've scheduled things with "midnight" deadlines, I always say "11:59pm on the 10th" or something like that, to avoid the ambiguity. From experience, if you don't people will ask which you mean.)


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