Daylight Savings Time – Time to sleep

Did you remember to turn your clocks back one hour? It’s about that time of year – Daylight Savings time – to gain an extra hour of sleep this Sunday so rest assured that you’re excuse to be a lazy bum is well warranted.

Here’s an interesting nooget of information:

The official spelling is Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight SavingS Time.

Saving is used here as a verbal adjective (a participle). It modifies time and tells us more about its nature; namely, that it is characterized by the activity of saving daylight. It is a saving daylight kind of time. Similar examples would be a mind expanding book or a man eating tiger. Saving is used in the same way as saving a ball game, rather than as a savings account.

Nevertheless, many people feel the word savings (with an ‘s’) flows more mellifluously off the tongue. Daylight Savings Time is also in common usage, and can be found in dictionaries.

Adding to the confusion is that the phrase Daylight Saving Time is inaccurate, since no daylight is actually saved. Daylight Shifting Time would be better, but it is not as politically desirable.

On a related note, it is now time to get a little shut-eye.