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San Francisco commuters were relieved recently when a commuter rail strike was averted. But for some time, stories about the negotiations said that rail workers had vowed âto strike at midnight Sunday.â
To some readers, that meant that they would not be able to take the train to church on Sunday; to others, it meant that Mondayâs work commute could be problematic.
âMidnight Sundayâ could mean between Saturday night and Sunday morning, or between Sunday night and Monday morning, depending on how one thinks of âmidnight.â If itâs already Sunday, no oneâs going to be confused; but if itâs Saturday or before, readers might not know which âmidnightâ to worry about. (In this case, the strike was planned for between Sunday and Monday.) While some dictionaries and usage guides say that âmidnightâ looks forward to morning, since the clock changes from p.m. to a.m., others, including Websterâs New World College Dictionary, say that midnight means âtwelve oâclock at night; the middle of the night,â looking backward instead of forward.
Many news publications get around the issue by saying â12:01 a.m. Monday,â which eliminates the confusion but introduces a slight inaccuracy. Strikes generally donât begin at 12:01 a.m., they begin at midnight.
Another way to avoid the problem is to write that the strike is threatened for âovernight Sundayâ or âfirst thing Sunday.â While this is also slightly inaccurate, in that it doesnât give a specific time, it would clarify things for readers wondering whether there will be a train to catch.
âMidnightâ isnât the only two-faced word, of course. Quick: Whatâs a âbiweeklyâ publication? Twice a week, or twice a month? What about a âbiannualâ art exhibit? A âbiennialâ one?
âBiweeklyâ is supposed to mean once every two weeks, or twice a month (in most months). But the prefix âbi-â means âtwoââif you have âbifocalsâ you have two glasses in one frameâso you can see how someone might believe that âbiweeklyâ means twice a week. And, as if that werenât confusing enough, âbiannualâ really does mean twice a year; the word for every other year is âbiennial.â (âBiennialâ can also mean âlasting for two years.â Go figure.)
As with âmidnight,â when there is any possibility of ambiguity, itâs better to avoid those words entirely, writing instead that âthe magazine publishes every other weekâ or âthe art exhibit is held twice a yearâ (or every other year).
The prefix âsemi-,â which means âhalf,â doesnât have as many identity problems as âbi-,â but some peopleâand dictionariesâthink a âsemiweeklyâ publishes every other week, not twice a week. And since âsemiannualâ and âbiannualâ mean the same thingâtwice a yearâwho can blame them?
And letâs not even get into why âflammableâ and âinflammableâ share the exact same meaning. Itâs too easy to get burned.
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