# Ambiguity Poll: What does "Saturday at midnight" mean to you?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 15, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480 "2009-01-15T20:13:17Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 12\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Jelymag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@Jelymag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jelymag)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/41 "2009-01-16T19:59:13Z")

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If I hear “midnight on Saturday” then I agree with most others here, i.e. the second choice put forth in the OP. But if I hear “12 AM on Saturday,” then that clearly means the other choice to me. I think it is because, while strict definition of “midnight” = “12 AM,” the phrase “midnight” to me means _middle of the night which began on Saturday_.

If I am out at a bar at 1:00 AM on Sunday, and am telling people about it later, I say “I had a great time Saturday night.” To say “I had a great time at this bar on Sunday morning,” would sound very unusual to me. YMMV.

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**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/42 "2009-01-16T20:05:04Z")

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This whole question has about the same clarity as saying “we’ve decided to push the meeting time up by two hours.”

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**Author:** ![Corner\_Case](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corner_case/32/234_2.png) [@Corner\_Case](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corner_Case)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/43 "2009-01-16T20:13:55Z")

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I making a few assumptions here but - Bell Canada is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. This is approximately the same longitude as Danbury, Connecticut. According to the [Navy’s Astronomical Applications Department](http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php), on December 15, 2008, sunset was at 4:25pm and on December 16, 2008, sunrise was at 7:14am. This makes midnight on December 15, 2008 actually at 11:49:30. 😃

Now, consider it’s Monday and someone says, “I’m having a party _next_ Saturday. Wanna come?” Do you think they mean the Saturday that is occurring in 5 days or the one that will occur in 12 days? I think _this_ Saturday is the one coming up and _next_ Saturday is the one after.

I think this (or that) is why I don’t get invited parties. 😛

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**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/44 "2009-01-16T21:08:06Z")

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11:59:58 PM Friday  
11:59:59 PM Friday  
12:00:00 AM Saturday \<-- Midnight, technically Saturday  
12:00:01 AM Saturday  
12:00:02 AM Saturday  
…  
11:59:58 AM Saturday  
11:59:59 AM Saturday  
12:00:00 PM Saturday \<-- Noon  
12:00:01 PM Saturday  
12:00:02 PM Saturday  
…  
11:59:58 PM Saturday  
11:59:59 PM Saturday  
12:00:00 AM Sunday \<-- Midnight, technically Sunday  
12:00:01 AM Sunday  
12:00:02 AM Sunday

This clearly points to the first usage. That being said, I’m more than willing to recognize that conventional usage of “Saturday at Midnight” generally implies “Saturday [night] at Midnight”, which is the second usage back in the original post. Personally, I tend to include “night” or “morning” to clarify – even “Saturday night at 3 am” is recognizable as what’s technically Sunday morning.

That being said, I’m flabbergasted at the people who’re acting as if there’s no rational basis for the first, technically correct interpretation. Furthermore, I’m even more shocked that documents specifying the time as “12:00:00 AM” could be interpreted in any manner other than the first way. Anyone with a digital watch that includes the date (or a computer) can easily see that “12:00:00 AM” is the first second of the new day – at the same time that it rolls around from 11:59 to 12:00, it also rolls over from PM to AM and changes the date, just as I enumerated at the beginning of this post.

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**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/45 "2009-01-16T21:36:08Z")

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Per my post, “it depends,” based on context.

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/46 "2009-01-16T21:40:45Z")

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I would never say “Saturday at midnight.”

Informally, I would say “Midnight Saturday night,” meaning the midnight between Saturday and Sunday. I would also say “1 a.m. Saturday night,” meaning the same night, or more probably “Saturday night at 1 a.m.” Saturday night is unambiguously the night that concludes Saturday.

If I wished to be completely unambiguous I would of course say “midnight on the night between Saturday and Sunday.” This construction is fairly common in French: _la nuit de samedi à dimanche_.

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**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/47 "2009-01-16T21:42:21Z")

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> [@Corner\_Case](#):
>
> Now, consider it’s Monday and someone says, “I’m having a party _next_ Saturday. Wanna come?” Do you think they mean the Saturday that is occurring in 5 days or the one that will occur in 12 days? I think _this_ Saturday is the one coming up and _next_ Saturday is the one after.
> 
> I think this (or that) is why I don’t get invited parties. 😛

We’ve done this before, and it’s why I don’t say “next Saturday” either. I say “this coming Saturday” or “a week from Saturday” depending on the case. (British English has the expression “Saturday week” meaning a week from this coming Saturday.

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**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/48 "2009-01-16T21:53:46Z")

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Colloquially, “Saturday at midnight” means Saturday night, and Saturday night follows Saturday day. If I go out on Saturday and am still out at 3 a.m., it’s still Saturday night.

In any kind of official documentation, I’d say “Saturday at midnight” is too ambiguous without further clarification.

> [@Corner\_Case](#):
>
> Now, consider it’s Monday and someone says, “I’m having a party _next_ Saturday. Wanna come?” Do you think they mean the Saturday that is occurring in 5 days or the one that will occur in 12 days? I think _this_ Saturday is the one coming up and _next_ Saturday is the one after.

There’s an even simpler term for the Saturday five days from now: “Saturday.”

> [@](#):
>
> I think this (or that) is why I don’t get invited parties. 😛

Or it could be because you keep sticking out your tongue at people.

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**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/49 "2009-01-16T22:03:47Z")

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“Saturday at midnight” means it’s Saturday night, and it just turned midnight. Day comes before night for a normal person’s schedule, so it must mean 6 hours past 6pm on Saturday night. In other words, midnight is something you _stay up for_, not something you kick off with, unless you’re some kind of oversleeping vampire.

> [@matt\_mcl](#):
>
> I would never say “Saturday at midnight.”
> 
> Informally, I would say “Midnight Saturday night,” meaning the midnight between Saturday and Sunday.

Exactly! “Midnight Saturday night” has an implied comma (“Midnight, Saturday night”) which makes it unambiguous. I would take “Saturday at midnight” to mean the same thing, and “Saturday 00:00” (pronounced “oh-hundred” or more simply, “the zero hour”) to mean “Saturday just as Friday ended”.

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/50 "2009-01-16T22:07:32Z")

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> [@Kyla](#):
>
> Saturday at midnight is the moment before Sunday starts.
> 
> I had a paper due at Tuesday at midnight earlier this week (to be turned in online). I had a moment of confusion, too, but eventually decided that it was due at almost-Wednesday. I got it back today (got an A!) and the professor didn’t say anything about a problem, so I guess I got it right.

It would have been an A++ if it hadn’t been late. 😉

And yeah, Saturday midnight means Saturday night at 12 (just before Sunday).

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**Author:** ![Mariemarie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/58f4c7/32.png) [@Mariemarie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mariemarie)\
**Post date:** [January 16, 2009, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/51 "2009-01-16T22:15:07Z")

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To me, “Saturday at midnight” means the same time as “Sunday 12:00 AM”.

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [January 17, 2009, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ambiguity-poll-what-does-saturday-at-midnight-mean-to-you/481480/52 "2009-01-17T00:00:36Z")

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> [@Corner\_Case](#):
>
> Now, consider it’s Monday and someone says, “I’m having a party _next_ Saturday. Wanna come?” Do you think they mean the Saturday that is occurring in 5 days or the one that will occur in 12 days? I think _this_ Saturday is the one coming up and _next_ Saturday is the one after.
> 
> I think this (or that) is why I don’t get invited parties. 😛

It depends on how far away the Saturday is. If it’s only Monday, then I assume they mean 5 days later. If it’s Friday, then it must be 8 days later. “This” means “a couple days” and “the \_\_\_ after next” means “a couple days +7”. Without the context, I’d default to it being the very next occurence, since “the \_\_ after next” is never meant to mean 2.5 weeks away.

> [@robardin](#):
>
> “Saturday at midnight” means it’s Saturday night, and it just turned midnight. Day comes before night for a normal person’s schedule, so it must mean 6 hours past 6pm on Saturday night. In other words, midnight is something you _stay up for_, not something you kick off with, **unless you’re some kind of oversleeping vampire**.

Or in the military. Right now, I’ve got orders to do something at 00:00 on a certain day. I know exactly what that means- a minute later, it’ll be the same day. In events where a day means something (like a club outing), Saturday midnight follows the rest of Saturday night. In a context where it happens 24 hours (shift work), Saturday midnight defaults to a part of Saturday morning, but it’s terrible etiquette.

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