[tz] Ambiguous abbreviations for Australian timezones when daylight savings is in affect

Paul Eggert eggert at cs.ucla.edu
Wed Apr 3 18:54:01 UTC 2013


>> > "Daylight Saving" is an American construct that is
>> > both meaningless and not used by the rest of us.

> What term is used by the rest of the English-speaking world?

British English typically uses "summer time" where American
English uses "daylight saving time".  It's used regardless
of what date the clocks are actually advanced or retarted.

The term "daylight saving" actually originated in England;
the first well-known proposal for daylight saving time was
William Willett's in 1907, which called it "daylight saving"
rather than "summer" time.  In Britain the name was changed
to "summer" time as part of the circa-1910 campaign to introduce
the practice, and the name change took hold there, as well as
in nearby parts of Europe (e.g., "Sommerzeit" in German).
Americans stuck with the older name, though.


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