Even after the clock ceased to be the master metaphor of the universe, it became more than ever master of daily life on this planet. The clock made it possible for Europeans to be “on time.” By the late seventeenth century, when clocks were not uncommon among the literate and wealthy, the word “punctual”—which formerly had described a person who insisted upon points (from the Latin punctus, “points”) or details of conduct—came to describe a person who was exactly observant of an appointed time. By the late eighteenth century the word “punctuality” appeared in our language to describe the habit
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