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Daylight Savings Time – Time to sleep

Posted in Random by Derek at 4:03 am
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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.

5 Responses to “Daylight Savings Time – Time to sleep”

  1. FernyB says:

    I just changed my clock now.

  2. Wash_Jones says:

    Yeah. Imagine my suprise when I woke up this morning, looked at the clock, and raced to get to work… an hour early. You should email me this kind of thing, uneasysilence.

  3. Dwayne says:

    Unless you live in Tempe AZ, there is no Daylight Saving Times :( …..

  4. Mister Macphisto says:

    I hate daylight savings, in Australia, that means I have an extra hour in the day, when I could be sleeping!

  5. Rafferty says:

    ^^ In Australia we had to put our clocks an hour forward, missing out on an hour of sleep. We didn’t get an extra hour in the day, we lost one! :(

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