o-dark-thirty

o-dark-thirty是非正式说法，指天还没亮、早得让人不想起床的凌晨时分，通常不表示一个精确的钟点。

💡 记忆钩子

把它想成“黑漆漆的三更半夜”：时间早到天还黑着，早起或被叫醒这件事本身也显得很折磨，所以这个说法既指凌晨的黑暗时段，也带有夸张、嫌早的语气。

📝 学习建议

不要把它当成固定的三点半或某个精确时间；它只是夸张地表示非常早的凌晨。
这是非正式表达，先掌握“在天亮前很早出发或起床”这一核心用法即可。

📖 中文释义

noun

core 凌晨的黑暗时分

📖 指天还黑着、早得让人不想起床的凌晨时分，通常只强调“特别早”，不说明具体是几点。这个词把黑暗的天空和起床太早的厌烦感合在了一起。

💡 常用“at o-dark-thirty”表示“在凌晨很早的时候”，也可说“get up”或“leave at o-dark-thirty”。它是非正式且常带夸张、抱怨或开玩笑的语气；中文学习者不要按字面把它当成某个固定钟点，也不要在正式通知中使用。

informal uncountable

We had to leave at o-dark-thirty to catch the first flight.

我们得在天还没亮的时候出发，才能赶上第一班飞机。

I was awake at o-dark-thirty, wondering why the alarm had gone off.

凌晨很早的时候我就醒了，纳闷闹钟为什么响了。

🌳 词源

这个说法仿照用二十四小时制读出的类似时间表达构成；其中的“o”来自把零读成字母音，并不是“o'clock”的缩写。

By analogy with "o-three-thirty" (0330), "o-four-thirty" (0430), "o-five-thirty" (0530), and similar times as often expressed on the 24-hour clock—early morning hours that archetypally share the characteristics of a still-dark/nighttime sky and a distastefully early time of rising/arousal; the letter o in these terms comes from the /oʊ/-for-zero pronunciation, which (despite its conflated nature) is idiomatically widespread (just as it also is in "two-point-oh" for "2.0", for example); thus, it is not homologous to the o' in o'clock.

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