Where does the expression "watershed" come from? (eg the 9pm watershed)?
915990
It's the dividing line between an area drained by a river running in one direction and one drained by another river running in an opposite direction. The figurative sense, “a turning point,” as in The decision marked a watershed in criminal legal theory, is sometimes overused, especially in journalese.
454518
No, I've never heard of that phrase either.  Although I've never heard of it, if you google the phrase "traffic hour" you'll find a ton of sites that use it.  Funny enough, most of them seem academic in nature--they seem to study traffic patterns or describe traffic patterns in some way.\n\nDo your parents work for the DoT by any chance??? :)
132351
No one really invented the word it evolved over time to come to mean what it does today\n\nc.1340, "discharge of semen other than during sex," later, "desecration, defilement" (1382), from L.L. pollutionem (nom. pollutio) "defilement," from L. polluere "to soil, defile, contaminate," from por- "before" + -luere "smear," related to lutum "mud," and to lues "filth" (cf. Gk. lyma "filth, dirt, disgrace," lymax "rubbish, refuse," O.Ir. loth "mud, dirt," Lith. lutynas "pool, puddle"). Sense of "contamination of the environment" first recorded c.1860, but not common until c.1955. Pollute (v.) is attested from c.1380 in sense "defile," from L. pollutus, pp. of polluere. Meaning "contaminate the environment" first recorded 1954. Pollutant is from 1892.
89653
My dad use to say that sometimes when I was going out on a date.  "Going to watch the submarine races?" It would be nice to know the origin of that.  All I could think of was making out.
741742
I think it's a euphemism for "jacksh-t"\nSo now the question is, where did THAT phrase come from?
248017
The only reason you are using the arcaic am and pm system is because the english language doesn´t have a single word for day and night. For the rest of us there are 24 hours to the (day + night) so it´s 00:00 which is the first minute of the first hour in the (day + night) after while 23:59 is the last minute of the (day + night) before.
659478
I think he meant to ask why a day is divided into 24 and not 36 or 48. The actual time would be the same but there would be short intervals. A half hour would end up being an hour. Why divide a circle into 360 or an hour into 60. \n\nHour :- "a traditional unit of time, equal to 60 minutes, or 3600 seconds, or 1/24 day. The custom of dividing the daylight into 12 hours goes back at least as far as the Babylonians, who liked to divide units by 12 because groups of 12 are easily divided into halves, thirds, or fourths. Originally an hour was 1/12 of the time between sunrise and sunset, so summer hours were longer than winter hours. Later, when people wanted to express times at night, it was natural to divide the night into 12 hours as well, making 24 hours in the day. Only after the invention of mechanical clocks, around 1300, did hours became equal intervals marked by clocks. The word comes from an ancient Greek word hora which originally meant a season, especially a religious season, and hence a "defined" period of time. In the Christian church hora came to mean one of the services held at seven specific times during the day, thus establishing the word as marking subdivisions of the day."
702037
I have never heard of the term.  I would guess that it is the distance from the furthest portion of a tributary area to the outlet of the area.
65196
According to the Word Detective, "To begin at the beginning, "clock" has been slang for the human face since the mid-nineteenth century, based on its supposed resemblance to the face of a clock.  "Clock" as a verb has also been slang for "to punch in the face or strike violently" since the early 20th century, again based on the clock-face metaphor.\n\n"Elsewhere in the world of fisticuffs, according to the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, "clean" has been slang for "vanquish" since the early 19th century.  The Random House dictionary also lists "fix someone's clock" as a slang term for "to finish someone," first attributed to the writer O. Henry in 1908.  Curiously, the first citation for the whole phrase "clean someone's clock" comes only in 1959, but we can assume it had been around for awhile before that.       \n\nEven with all this evidence tying faces and punches together, I must say that there is another possible source for "clean someone's clock."   In railroad slang, an engineer who applies the train's air brakes in an emergency is said to "clean the clock" or "wipe the gauge" as the speedometer needle drops to zero.  It seems logical that such a graphic metaphor would be the perfect way to describe stopping an opponent in his tracks, and even if this is not the source of the phrase, it may have contributed to its popularization."
778170
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it originated with the Rolling Stones as they described their backstage parties for an interview of somesort. The saying has pretty much been adopted by every rock group and wannabe rocker eversince as a way of answering why they're in the music buisness.
578919
Everyone is wrong except the guy who said it was from Anglo-Saxon.  "F..k" has a long pedigree in the Germanic languages.  It was found in Proto-Germanic about 2500 years ago as the verb *fukan 'have intercourse'.  This was not vulgar at that time and was a euphemism for some older word.  Ultimately, it comes from Proto-Indo-European *pug- "to strike", from which we get the borrowed Latin form pugilism 'boxing'.
50335
Good question, my wife used to use that phrase. She couldn't remember where or when she picked it up.  Some phrases are regional, as well.  Like the term "Uff Da" used primarily in Minnesota & Wisconsin, is a Norwegian equivalent of "good grief".  "Uff" like "oops" and "Da" meaning "then" - "uff" (oops), "da" (then).
1143156
Day consist of 24 hrs. First 12 hrs AM and next 12 hrs PM. Our watch shows only 12 hrs. This is due to differentiate the morning and evening or day and night. so from midnight 1 to noon 12 we say it as AM and from noon 1 to midnight 12 we say as PM. \n\n“AM” stands for the Latin phrase Ante Meridiem —which means “before noon”—and “PM” stands for Post Meridiem : “after noon"\n\n\nAM and PM - What is Noon and Midnight?\n-----------------------------------------------------\nAM and PM start immediately after Midnight and Noon (Midday) respectively.\n\nThis means that 00:00 AM or 00:00 PM (or 12:00 AM and 12:00 PM) have no meaning.\n\nEvery day starts precisely at midnight and AM starts immediately after that point in time e.g. 00:00:01 AM (see also leap seconds)\n\nTo avoid confusion timetables, when scheduling around midnight, prefer to use either 23:59 or 00:01 to avoid confusion as to which day is being referred to.\n\nIt is after Noon that PM starts e.g. 00:00:01 PM (12:00:01)\n\nAM  abbreviation ante meridiem \n-----------------------------------------\n\nMain Entry: an·te me·ri·di·em\nPronunciation: \n"an-ti-m&-'ri-dE-&m, -dE-"em\nFunction: adjective\nEtymology: Latin\nDate: 1563\nMeaning: being before noon\nAbbreviation a.m. \n\n\nPM  abbreviation post meridiem\n-----------------------------------------\nMain Entry: post me·ri·di·em\nPronunciation:\n -m&-'ri-dE-&m, -"em\nFunction: adjective\nEtymology: Latin\nDate: 1647\nMeaning: being after noon\nAbbreviation p.m.
793676
Sorry you've had such rubbish answers. \n\nI'm usually quite good at this sort of thing, but I'm afraid I can't find any info on the origins of this phrase.\n\nI hope someone more knowledgeable answers you soon!
709187
i think - what ?%?^@^@$%R does that mean... wouldve searched for it online but hey, got plenty more questions to answer before the net gets jammed and slows down and all..\n\ncheers..
859481
It comes from I think the movie "American pie" if I remember correctly. 'Stiffler' uses it. It means Mother I'd like to f*ck.
281104
It appears to be in relation to energy production.  I have referenced a hyperlink to a PDF file that refers to this term with in its context...the file does have some English translation.