Exactly how much time constitutes a 'moment'?

TabbyTom

This question came up in a quiz I did recently (not on FT), and the answer was 90 seconds. This seems to be a medieval use of the word. The Oxford English Dictionary quotes from John of Trevisa (1398): “A day [contains] foure quadrantes. And a quadrant conteynyth syxe houres. And an houre foure poyntes. And a poynt .x. momentes. And a moment twelue vnces. And an vnce seuen and fourty attomos. “ There have been other uses. The OED also mentions a Rabbinical usage of “moment” for 1/1080 of an hour (3 1/3 seconds). In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries “moment” was sometimes used for second. In ordinary usage, it’s just a very short period of time. Apr 30 04, 3:00 PM

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