[LEAPSECS] the big artillery

Clive D.W. Feather clive at davros.org
Thu Nov 6 11:19:44 EST 2014


Tony Finch said:
>> "minutes" and "seconds" are fractions of 60 and have been so since
>> babylonian times for minutes and since 13-mumble for seconds.
> 
> The etymology is actually helpful in this case rather than misleading as
> etymologies so often are.
> 
> "minute" is short for "pars minuta prima", the first small part
> "second" is short for "pars minuta secunda", the second small part

And I've seen "third" and "fourth", with the obvious meaning, used in old
documents.

But etymology doesn't override present meanings.

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Clive D.W. Feather          | If you lie to the compiler,
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