It's correct and common usage..."quarter of" is the same as a "quarter
before". One of many definitions of "of" includes: Away from or
distance from.

The full sentence would be: It is one quarter of an hour before (away
from) nine hours on the clock. In the interest of brevity it becomes:
It's a quarter of nine.

Tony Calguire wrote in message ...
BDK wrote:


How old are you? I can't believe anyone over 25 hasn't
heard the term before. As others have posted, a
"quarter" is 15 minutes, AKA 1/4 of an hour...



The original poster's problem was not with the word "quarter", but with
the word "of". The phrase "a quarter of nine" is completely
meaningless... what exactly is one-fourth of nine o'clock, anyway?
9:15? But "a quarter of nine" actually means 8:45.

The original poster's problem was not with the word "quarter", but with
the word "of". The phrase "a quarter of nine" is completely
meaningless... what exactly is one-fourth of nine o'clock, anyway?
9:15? But "a quarter of nine" actually means 8:45.

It's not meaningless, and it's not that unusual. "Of" is used that way in a
lot of expressions -- "He's within 100 miles of Calgary." "That guy is two
bricks shy of a load." "Of" denotes proximity. A quarter is understood to
be fifteen minutes, for obvious reasons. A "quarter of" an hour is "fifteen
minutes proximity" of an hour. It's an old expression, I know, but it's not
all that uncommon around here (Wisconsin).

On Sun, 14 Nov 2004 08:19:02 -0600, uncle arnie
wrote:

I've never heard this before. What does "quarter of 10" mean? Is this
before 10 or after 10? I thought it was my hearing until this was
repeated. "quarter to" and "quarter after", rarely "quarter past" are all
usual ways of saying this around here. Though digital clocks make it "ten
fifteen". I think this must be a regionalism or slang for somewhere in the
USA (?).

Not US, as far as I know. My parents were from Ireland and
they always used "quarter of" for a quarter to the hour. Also "ten
(minutes) of" for minutes, etc. before the hour. Also quarter past and
half past for after the hour.

Another of their time phrasings was "He's one age to her"
meaning they were of the same age. None of those usages were common
among the people I grew up with in California.

Note: After the coming of digital wris****ches, someone once
said, "No one except a train conductor needs to know that it's eight
thirty-seven."




I also hear "zulu" said instead of UTC (or the old GMT).