Quick grammar refresher: Apostrophes serve two main purposes.
They indicate possession, as in “children’s toys” or “the director’s film,” and they replace omitted letters in contractions like “don’t” (do not) or “there’s” (there is).
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The apostrophe in o’clock serves the latter purpose, signaling that part of the original phrase has been dropped—though many people have forgotten what that was.
What Does “O’Clock” Mean?
The “O” in o’clock stands for “of the,” according to the Britannica Dictionary. So when someone says “it’s six o’clock,” they’re actually saying “it’s six of the clock.” While this phrasing might sound unusual to modern ears, it was once a common way of saying “according to the clock.”
The Origin of “Of the Clock”
This phrase emerged when mechanical clocks became widespread in Europe during the late 1300s.
Before then, people relied on sundials and shadow clocks to track timeBut as analog clocks became the standard, the phrase “of the clock” gained traction to specify timekeeping based on these devices.
How “Of the Clock” Became “O’Clock”
