gwern comments on [FICTION] Hamlet and the Philosopher's Stone - Less Wrong

27 Post author: HonoreDB 25 October 2011 10:31PM

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Comment author: gwern 11 May 2013 03:37:32AM 1 point [-]

Well, yes, everyone gets the reference. That doesn't bear on whether it is an anachronism for anything written as an Elizebethan work. 'Anachronism':

A thing belonging or appropriate to a period other than that in which it exists

If minutes were not commonly used in that period (as might make sense given the rarity of accurate mechanical clocks and limited accuracy of the ones that existed), then using minutes may be an anachronism.