Name: 為什麼我們要說 AM 和 PM？背後竟是超古老的由來！ (Why Do We Call It AM and PM? The Surprisingly Ancient Reason)
Uploaded: 2025-12-06T21:01:10.000Z
Duration: 8 min 25 s

If you've spent your entire life checking the time,

情態副詞

then you've probably come across something so normal that you never even questioned it.

那你大概遇過一件太理所當然、以至於從沒質疑過的事——

They're printed on clocks, digital displays, airline tickets, calendars, and phones.

它們印在時鐘、電子螢幕、機票、行事曆和手機上。

So familiar that we rarely stop to think about what they actually mean.

因為太熟悉，我們幾乎不會停下來想想它們究竟代表什麼。

But behind these two simple abbreviations lies a long history of astronomy, ancient civilizations, Roman influence, and

但在這兩個看似簡單的縮寫背後，其實藏著漫長的天文學、古代文明、羅馬文化影響，以及

the way humans have always tried to bring order to something as wild and unstoppable as time itself.

人類一直試圖為「時間」這種狂野又不可阻擋的東西建立秩序的歷史。

Today, we're diving deep into why we call the first half of the day, AM.

今天，我們要深入探討：為什麼我們把一天的前半稱為 AM，

And why the world still uses this system, even when there's an alternative 24-hour clock available.

以及為什麼明明有 24 小時制可用，世界上仍有許多地方繼續沿用這個系統。

Let's explore right here on History of Simple Things.

讓我們在《簡單事物的歷史》裡一起探索吧。

To understand AM and PM, you need to go all the way back to the civilizations that lived and died under the movement of the Sun.

要理解 AM 和 PM，你得回到古代文明，那些在太陽運行下生活與死亡的文化。

For thousands of years, humans used sunlight as their primary reference for time.

數千年來，人類以陽光作為主要的時間參考。

When the sun rose, when it was at its highest point, and when it set.

太陽升起、到達最高點、然後落下。

The midpoint of the day, when the sun is directly overhead, was incredibly important for navigation, rituals, farming, and even survival.

白天的中點，也就是太陽位於正上方的時刻，對航行、儀式、農耕甚至生存都極其重要。

Ancient Egyptians used sundials thousands of years ago, dividing daylight into 12 hours based purely on the movement of shadows.

古埃及人早在數千年前就使用日晷，將白天依照陰影移動分成 12 小時。

But it wasn't until the ancient Romans that the idea of naming the periods before and after the Sun's highest point became more formal and linguistic.

但直到古羅馬時代，人們才開始更正式、更語言化地命名太陽到達最高點前後的時間段。

They used Latin not just for religion or literature, but for daily life.

羅馬人不只在宗教或文學中使用拉丁文，也在日常生活中使用。

So naturally, timekeeping terminology evolved in Latin as well.

自然地，與時間相關的術語也在拉丁語中發展出來。

這就帶我們來到實際的詞彙本身。

AM stands for antemeridium, which literally means before midday or before the meridian,

AM 是 antemeridium 的縮寫，字面意思是「中午之前」或「子午線之前」。

with meridium referring to the Sun's position at its apex.

其中 meridium 指的是太陽在天上最高點的位置。

Meanwhile, PM stands for post meridium, meaning after midday.

相對地，PM 是 post meridium，意思是「中午之後」。

The 12-hour cycle resets every time the Sun reaches that midpoint.

每當太陽到達中天，12 小時的循環就會重置。

From midnight until just before noon, everything is considered antemeridium,

從午夜到正午前，都屬於 antemeridium。

And from noon until just before the next midnight, everything is postmeridium.

而從中午到下一次午夜前，則全是 post meridium。

What's interesting is that these terms refer specifically to the Sun's position,

有趣的是，這些術語其實描述的是太陽相對於天空中一條想像線的位置。

relative to an imaginary line in the sky called the meridian.

那條線叫做子午線（meridian）。

Essentially a vertical arc running from the North Pole to the South Pole across your location.

它是一條從北極延伸到南極，經過你所在位置上空的垂直弧線。

At solar noon, the Sun crosses this meridian, marking that exact midpoint of the day.

在「太陽正午」時，太陽會跨過這條子午線，劃下白天的精準中點。

So AM and PM are literally describing the Sun's cosmic travel schedule.

所以 AM 和 PM 其實是在描述太陽的宇宙旅程時間表。

Now, here's something that confuses almost everyone.

接著，是一個幾乎所有人都困惑過的問題。

At some point, why is 12 PM actually noon and 12 AM actually midnight?

為什麼 12 PM 是中午，而 12 AM 是午夜？

Shouldn't noon be neither before nor after midday?

照理說，中午既不是 AM 也不是 PM 啊？

By strict definition, noon is neither AM nor PM.

從嚴格定義來看，中午既不是 AM 也不是 PM。

But because the timekeeping system needed labels for schedules, clocks and communication, we applied the terms anyway.

但因為時間系統需要標示來用於行程、時鐘與溝通，人們還是硬把這些詞套用上去。

Historically, there were attempts to fix this.

歷史上其實有過一些修正的嘗試。

Some clocks used the word noon and midnight instead of AM, PM.

有些時鐘會用 noon（中午）和 midnight（午夜）取代 AM、PM。

Some old railways labeled midnight as 00:00 and noon as 12 M.

一些舊鐵路則使用 00:00 表示午夜，12 M 表示中午。

But eventually, by widespread convention, not by logic,

但最後，並不是因為邏輯，而是因為大家都這樣用——

12 PM became noon simply because it's easier to treat the numbers increasing after 12 o'clock as entering the post midday cycle.

12 PM 變成中午，原因只是因為 12 點後的數字看起來比較像進入「中午之後」。

Midnight got stuck with 12 AM because it begins the before midday hours.

而午夜則被歸類為 12 AM，因為它開始了「中午之前」的時段。

It's not mathematically elegant, but it's how the world standardized it.

雖然沒有數學上的優雅，但世界最終就是這樣標準化了。

As you might expect, the 12-hour AM, PM format isn't universal.

如你所料，12 小時制並不是普遍標準。

A large portion of the world uses the 24-hour clock, also known as military time.

世界很大一部分使用 24 小時制，也就是所謂的軍用時間。

In that format, the day runs from 00:00 to 23:59 without resetting halfway.

在這種格式中，一天從 00:00 到 23:59，不會在正中間重置。

Midnight is 00:00, noon is 12:00, and instead of saying 8 PM, you simply say 20:00.

午夜是 00:00，中午是 12:00，而像 8 PM 則直接變成 20:00。

It's logical, it reduces confusion, and it's used heavily in Europe, Asia, science, aviation and medicine.

它邏輯清晰、減少混淆，在歐洲、亞洲、科學界、航空界與醫療領域非常常見。

So why does the United States, Canada, the Philippines and several other countries still popularly use AM and PM?

那為什麼美國、加拿大、菲律賓等國仍然普遍使用 AM/PM 呢？

A lot of it comes down to cultural habit, historical practice, and

很多原因來自文化習慣、歷史沿用，還有——

the fact that analog clocks, which dominated for centuries, were designed around 12-hour cycles.

幾個世紀以來佔主流的指針時鐘，就是依 12 小時設計的。

The 12-hour format is also easy to read quickly and matches ancient human rhythms tied to daylight and night cycles.

12 小時格式簡單易讀，也符合人類自古以來以白天與黑夜為週期的生活節奏。

Even though digital systems allow for 24-hour displays, many cultures simply felt no need to change.

即使現代數位系統能顯示 24 小時，許多文化仍覺得沒必要更改。

However, the Latin term stuck because English, unlike some other languages, borrowed heavily from Latin.

然而，拉丁語的用法能保存至今，是因為英語在發展過程中深受拉丁文影響。

In its early scientific, religious and academic development,

在早期的科學、宗教與學術領域，

timekeeping was something the church and astronomers dealt with extensively and both depended on Latin terms.

時間紀錄多由教會與天文學家負責，而他們大量使用拉丁語。

So by the time English clocks and schedules became standardized,

因此當英語的時鐘與行程安排逐漸標準化時，

AM and PM were already the accepted scholarly way of referring to the two halves of the day.

AM 和 PM 早已成為學術界接受的標準術語。

And because English speaking nations spread their influence globally through trade, colonization and technology, the system went with them.

隨著英語國家透過貿易、殖民和科技影響世界，這套系統也一併傳播出去。

The result is that even in countries that now use the 24-hour clock,

結果就是，即使在如今使用 24 小時制的國家，

you can still find AM&PM in old documents, historic buildings and traditional literature.

你仍然會在舊文件、歷史建築與古典文學中看到 AM & PM 的痕跡。

In the big picture, AM and PM aren't just labels on your alarm clock.

總體來說，AM 和 PM 不只是你鬧鐘上的兩個字母。

Echoes of ancient astronomers, Roman scholars, sundial makers,

是古代天文學家、羅馬學者、日晷工匠、

church timekeepers and early scientists who shaped how the modern world understands time.

教會時間管理者與早期科學家留給現代世界的遺產。

The next time you set an early morning alarm or schedule a late night meeting,

下次當你設定早上鬧鐘或安排深夜會議時，

remember, you're using a system older than most languages.

記住，你用的是一套比多數語言都還古老的系統。

Older than modern nations and older than the technology that now depends on it.

比現代國家古老，也比現在所依賴的科技古老。

And that system continues to work centuries later because of two simple Latin phrases: antemeridium and postmeridium.

而這套系統之所以能運作至今，全靠兩個簡單的拉丁詞：antemeridium 和 postmeridium。

If you have suggestions for our next video, feel free to share them in the comments below.

如果你有下一支影片的建議，歡迎留言分享。

We'll be sure to give you an acknowledgment for your contribution.

我們一定會為你的貢獻致上鳴謝。

If you enjoyed this video, please check out our other bingeable channels.

如果你喜歡這部影片，也可以去看看我們其他值得狂看的頻道。

Thank you for joining us on this journey through the History of Simple Things.

感謝你與我們一起走過《簡單事物的歷史》。

Don't forget to like, subscribe and stay tuned for more stories woven through the smallest details.

別忘了按讚、訂閱，並持續關注更多從小細節編織出的故事。

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為什麼我們要說 AM 和 PM？背後竟是超古老的由來！ (Why Do We Call It AM and PM? The Surprisingly Ancient Reason)

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