There are words we use we don't think about, simply because we instinctually know what they mean. For example, when you look at the newest tablet that was just released and your friend says, "that's really cool," you know he mean it's very exciting or intriguing, not that it's physically cold to the touch. This is all due to something called connotation.
Connotation is the mental image you have about a word or a phrase that tells you what it means to you, regardless of what the actual denotation, or definition indicates. Another example would be when my mother says, "He's was out like a light." What she means, and the immediate picture I get in my head, is that of my child falling asleep immediately when he got into his bed.
It can happen though that you only know the connotation for something. You might have an idea what the word or phrase means by definition but you're not completely sure. What you do know is what it means to you. You never had to rely on a definition because the meaning is so basic or so ingrained. That happened to me yesterday.
We left Florida to drive the long drive home at 10:41 AM. We drove for days, months, what felt like eons and eventually I looked at the clock and it was 10:41 P.M. I said to my husband, "we've been on the road for exactly twelve hours." Then I said to him, "Hey, do you know what a.m and p.m. stand for?"
I'm sure I knew at some point. I'm sure I learned their meanings in school and then promptly forgot them. My connotation of the terms were that AM meant in the morning; it meant starting at 12:00 midnight and it went right up until 12:00 noon and then you moved over into PM and that meant afternoon into evening.
I wrestled with myself internally because PM just meant exactly what it meant. It defied defining because it was so obvious, so clear, so unnecessary to define because it was a term I had been reinforcing in my brain for my entire life. But surely it meant something. And my money was on it meaning something in Latin, because those pesky abbreviations always mean something in Latin.
My husband was in the same position I was. We thought we knew what the terms stood for but when we searched our memories, all we came up with were humorous guesses. So I looked it up. A.M. refers to Ante Meridiem, meaning "Before Noon" and P.M. stands for Post Meridiem, meaning "after Noon."
And then I learned something I didn't remember knowing from my youth. 12:00 a.m. or 12:00 p.m is incorrect. Since the terms PM means before or after the mark of noon, so 12:00 Noon itself has no PM designation. The same is true for 12:00 Midnight. It is equally incorrect to refer to that time as 12:00 AM. So to be correct and more to the point, "cool," use 12:00 Noon and 12:00 Midnight.
Then there's one extra little thing I learned that was interesting. There are four ways to correctly write AM and PM: AM/PM or A.M./P.M. or am/pm or a.m./p.m. I've sprinkled all four types throughout this post and the inconsistency is killing me, but I thought I'd try and figure out which version I like the most. I think I'm picking AM/PM or am/pm. Those periods just seem excessive.
The Big Boy Update: Mister Itchy Scratchy. He's had a rough few days with his eczema on vacation. Was it the sun or the chlorine in the pool? Was it the new clothes and materials? Was it the change in bedding or what the bedding was washed in from the rental company? Were eggs intermixed into his food more than we thought in minor ingredients? We don't know and it's not that important, it's just something that happens. He was itchy the whole ride home and he looks a sight. We look forward to him outgrowing some of his sensitivities as he gets older.
The Tiny Girl Chronicles: He or she? I was asked more than once this past week if my daughter was a boy or a girl. It seems putting a little girl in red shoes and red clothing without a hair bow makes the determination more difficult to some people. She looks all girl to me, but then again, I know her.
Someone Once Said: I do know that the slickest way to lie is to tell the right amount of truth—then shut up.
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