<P> A day is commonly divided into 24 hours of 60 minutes, with each minute composed of 60 seconds . </P> <P> In the 19th century, an idea circulated to make a decimal fraction (​ ⁄ or ​ ⁄) of an astronomical day the base unit of time . This was an afterglow of the short - lived movement toward a decimalisation of timekeeping and the calendar, which had been given up already due to its difficulty in transitioning from traditional, more familiar units . The most successful alternative is the centiday, equal to 14.4 minutes (864 seconds), being not only a shorter multiple of an hour (0.24 vs 2.4) but also closer to the SI multiple kilosecond (1 000 seconds) and equal to the traditional Chinese unit, kè . </P> <P> The word refers to various similarly defined ideas, such as: </P> <Dl> <Dt> Full day </Dt> </Dl>

Where did the word may day come from