Buzz
What does ‘a quarter of 10’ mean to you? A friend recently asked me this, and I thought the answer was straightforward: It refers to 15 minutes before 10 o'clock. However, many people find this phrase confusing or have never encountered it before. Why do some people say 'a quarter of' rather than 'a quarter to' or 'a quarter before'?
Initially, I thought that ‘of’ might be an old-fashioned remnant from earlier expressions, possibly connected to phrases like ‘of the clock,’ which later evolved into ‘o’clock.’ But the Oxford English Dictionary shows that the ‘quarter of’ time expression dates back to 1817, which is relatively recent in language history (the phrase ‘of the clock’ goes all the way back to Chaucer). The first recorded use (‘At 15 minutes of 10 a.m…’) is from an Indiana journal, and this way of telling time is mostly American, though it’s also seen in Scottish and Irish English.
This could have originated from the phrase ‘It wants/lacks a quarter of 10.’ This style of time-telling is quite old and was used both in England and the U.S. A 1692 example from the Antiquarian Horological Society shows someone complaining about the imprecision of public clocks in London.
I was in Covent Garden when the clock struck two. By the time I reached Somerset House, it was a quarter to two. When I got to St. Clements, it was already half-past two. By St. Dunstans, it was once again a quarter to two. When I passed Mr. Knib’s Dial in Fleet Street, it was exactly two o'clock. By Ludgate, it had already passed half-past one. By Bow Church, it was a quarter to two again. At the Dial near Stocks Market, it was a quarter past two. And finally, when I reached the Royal Exchange, it was a quarter to two once more. I swear this is true, and would love to know how long my walk from Covent Garden to the Royal Exchange took.
The expressions 'it wanted of' or 'it lacked of' were frequently used in time-related reports until the 19th century. It's likely that the ‘of’ we use today is simply a shortened version of this older phrasing. But who shortened it? Who uses it? And why is it still in use?
This question didn’t make it into the Harvard Dialect Survey, but from observing online conversations and personal experience, it seems that 'a quarter of' is widely used in the Northeast and Midwest, but less so in the South and West. Many people, however, have never heard the expression or consider it an outdated term.
As with many dialect features, it’s tough to explain why certain expressions are maintained in some regions and not in others. For example, in British English, ‘half-ten’ means 10:30, and in Scotland, ‘back of 10’ refers to a time shortly after 10, anywhere between 10:05 and 10:15. As we learn to tell time, we also pick up regional quirks in how it’s described. The ‘of’ construction is one such quirk I picked up. What about you? Do you use ‘a quarter of’ (or ‘five of’ or ‘10 of’…) when talking about time?
