What does “ish” mean when it comes to time?

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dogememe

Joined
Apr 15, 2017
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I was supposed to meet someone at 8:30pm. At about 7:30 they messaged me that “it might be 9ish actually” so I showed up at 8:58pm. Well now it’s 9:26pm and they have yet to show up.

What is a reasonable amount of time to wait? I think I’m going to give up at 9:30.

Grok told me that most people mean within 15 minutes when they said “ish” on a time.

But what is your personal opinion?
 
ClutchDisc said:
I agree with Pablo. 5 minutes or so either direction of time. And if it is going to be much different than that, I would let the person I am supposed to be meeting know. I dislike when people waste my time like that.
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Oh yeah. I’m back home now but VERY displeased. I’m the type of person that’s 5 minutes early to everything. I guess some people don’t respect other people’s time.
 
dogememe said:
I was supposed to meet someone at 8:30pm. At about 7:30 they messaged me that “it might be 9ish actually” so I showed up at 8:58pm. Well now it’s 9:26pm and they have yet to show up.

What is a reasonable amount of time to wait? I think I’m going to give up at 9:30.

Grok told me that most people mean within 15 minutes when they said “ish” on a time.

But what is your personal opinion?
Click to expand...
When "ish" is used, it means they won't be on time and sky is the limit by how much. I value my time and give 15 minutes and I'm gone. Gone for good. You gave more than I would.
 
dogememe said:
I was supposed to meet someone at 8:30pm. At about 7:30 they messaged me that “it might be 9ish actually” so I showed up at 8:58pm. Well now it’s 9:26pm and they have yet to show up.

What is a reasonable amount of time to wait? I think I’m going to give up at 9:30.

Grok told me that most people mean within 15 minutes when they said “ish” on a time.

But what is your personal opinion?
Click to expand...
Depends on what she looks like 😷
 
I'll give 10 minutes if there's no communication. I'll typically attempt to communicate before that. Especially in this modern era of texts and various other IMs and such, there's simply no excuse for being late AND not letting someone know what's going on.

Stuff happens-- we all know that. Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

150 years ago, a person would wait an entire day for the one train a person was supposed to be on. And the only assurance they had of them being on the train was usually a letter written weeks in advance, or-- if you're lucky-- a telegram a day or two prior. But this was accepted because there was simply no means of providing near-real-time updates on a person's location.

If you knew precisely when the train would arrive AND had confidence in that, you'd never wait hours to a full day for the train. You'd show up only at the time you need to.

Modern tech allows-- and also requires-- more punctuality and more communication.
 
I interpret "ish" to be a +/- 15 minute window.

If I say I'll show up around "9ish", then that means 8:45-9:15.

I look at it as how we would round up or down a number to the nearest value of "X". If I were going to be any later than 9:15, I should have said "9:30ish".

I do not use that as a license to abuse someone's time. But there are times where I'm not in control of the delays (such as traffic accidents, etc). I was raised that if you're early, you're on time; if you're on time, you're late. But we must admit even the best laid plans can become maligned by life's unexpected "oops" at times.
 
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