Afternoon, Evening, Night

[Square Eyes]

I know this is odd, but it has been bothering me for a while now, usually brought on by weather forecasters.

Cany anyone tell me at what time the afternoon becomes the evening, evening becomes night and night becomes morning ?

Now, I say, that afternoon is up until say 5pm. then 5-10pm is evening, with 10pm-5am night and morning 5am-12 noon. But others say that Morning starts at midnight. How can I expect what the weather is going to be like when they insist on using these generic terms.

Is there anything official about this ? And yes, frankly I'm bored.

[Gavin Scott]

I think I agree with you on those definitions. I tend to supplement with an, "early evening" or somesuch.

But I'm not the one to ask. There is an expression (is it a Scots one?) which goes, "I'll be there at the back of X O'Clock". Now is the 'back' of an hour just before or just after? I'm always either late or early.

[DAS]

Well according to D[A]ST (my standard time) we have four distinct zonal ranges, presented thus:

Morning: 03.30 until 12.00
Afternoon: 12.00 until 17.00 (17.30 in summertime)
Evening: 17.00/17.30 until 21.00
Night: 20.00 until 03.30

Un-necesssssarilly complicated maybe, but I follow it to the second... and YOU should to.

[cwathen]

Technically of course, morning starts at 12AM and afternoon at 12PM. Beyond that it's all a bit blurry.

I tend to work on these time regions:

5AM-8AM Early Morning
8AM-12PM Morning
12PM-6PM Afternoon
6PM-9PM Evening
9PM-1AM Night
1AM-5AM - Middle of the Night

[Pete]

I generally think of time this way

05:00 - 11:59 = Morning
12:00 - 12:59 = noon
13:00 - 17:59 = Afternoon
18:00 - 20:59 = Evening
21:00 - 22:00 (winter) 21:00 - 23:00 (summer) = dusk
the rest of the time is night.

[Ed Hammond]

All utterly arbitrary I know, but I'd probably class evening as ending at about 11pm, with night going through to 6am, early morning 6-8am.

Evening starts at 6pm, I'd say.

[DJGM]

The way I interpret a full 24 hour period is . . .

Morning:
00:00 - 12:00

Afternoon:
12:00 - 18:00

Evening:
18:00 - 21:00

Night:
21:00 - 00:00

[Gavin Scott]

You wrote that at 5.38 in the morning? I'd call that the middle of the night!

[Neil Jones]

Far as I'm concerned:

06:00 - 09:00 - early morning
09:00 - 12:00 - morning
12:00 - 15:00 - early afternoon
15:00 - 18:00 - late afternoon
18:00 - 22:00 - evening
23:00 - 06:00 - night time

[James Hatts]

LBC News 1152 in London has just renamed its drivetime show "The Evening Report" which to my mind sounds a bit odd for a show that runs 4-7pm

It's not so bad at this time of year but come June, it certainly won't feel like the evening at 4.30pm

It is followed by the Nightly News at 7pm

[markyboi]

But I'm not the one to ask. There is an expression (is it a Scots one?) which goes, "I'll be there at the back of X O'Clock". Now is the 'back' of an hour just before or just after? I'm always either late or early.

I think it means the start, but i'm not sure. Think it is a scots thing though.