Steen O’clock, That Inderminate Late (Or Early) Hour

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Stephen Bly from Naxaca, Nebraska.

Hello, Stephen. We’re glad to have you. What’s on your mind today?

Yeah, I have been reading a lot of newspapers from the late 1850s or 1800s doing family research,

And there’s lots of fun phrases, and I found one that has me scratching my head a little bit.

The account I came across was my great-grandpa had just returned from three years in the Navy

During the Spanish-American War, so it’s 1900, and the account was he and his brother-in-law

Drove to town for the purpose of applying an ample coat of vermilion paint, and after succeeding

Marvelously, they returned home about Steen o’clock. And the Steen o’clock, I mean, from the context,

I think it’s they were out partying until the early morning hours, but I had never heard that,

And I couldn’t find any research on it, and I was just curious if that was a popular phrase,

What it actually meant, when it found a popular, or anything you could tell me.

I like the idea of applying a coat of vermilion to the town.

I’ve never heard it expressed that way.

Painting the town red, huh?

Yes.

Steen O’clock.

It’s been fun, guys.

So Steen, S-T-E-N, O’clock.

Yes.

Yes.

And is there an apostrophe in front of Steen?

The newspaper did not have an apostrophe, no.

And what year was this?

This would have been 1900.

Okay, good. The timing’s very good.

It was never a common expression, but it does exist.

You can find it well back into the, oh, 1880s.

I think the earliest I know of it is 1881.

But it falls into a class of expressions called hyperbolic numerals.

And these are expressions of numbers that are inspecific.

So we have zillions or gazillions or umpteen.

And actually umpteen is related to steen.

And so when we talk about steen o’clock, we mean an indeterminate, probably either very late or probably very early hour.

Steen almost always is used with o’clock and referring to time.

And again and again and again, if you look in old newspapers and old journals, particularly dealing with teens or the military or colleges, you’ll find it having to do with people coming in after a carousing or partying or after a sports match or something like that.

Oh, how fun.

Yeah. So the steam part may be a clipping, a pretend clipping of the 24-hour representation of 16, which in a 24-hour clock would be 4 in the afternoon.

It’s kind of like 11-teen. It’s just an hour that doesn’t really exist.

Sometimes you’ll see S apostrophe teen.

When I asked about the apostrophe before teen,

Because some early versions will indicate that to me that they believe it’s an

Abbreviation or a clipping of a longer word, like 16.

I’ll see if I can help bring that term back.

Yeah, it’s weird because it kind of faded out by the 1930s.

So between the 1880s to the 1930s, you’ll find some use of it.

And then it just kind of peters up.

But now we have things like beer o’clock and dark 30, which kind of carry on the same tradition.

Yeah, wine o’clock.

Sure, wine o’clock.

Well, I sure appreciate all the help.

Yeah, I’m glad that you’re carrying on the linguistic tradition, if not the partying tradition.

Or maybe you’re doing both.

Notice how he didn’t answer.

Oh, yeah.

I heard the smirk.

All right.

Take care there.

Yep.

Thank you.

Bye.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Well, you can call us and leave a message any time of the night or day, even Steen o’clock.

The number is 877-929-9673.