midday

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English middai, also middei,^[2][3] inherited from Old English middæg,^{[2][4][5][6][7]} a compound from Old English midd (“middle”) + dæg (“day”), that is mid and day.^[4][6][8] Etymonline takes it as a contraction of the phrase midne dæg,^[5] which is recorded earlier, in the Vespasian Psalter and the Blickling Homilies,^[4][3] and the Middle English Dictionary derives the word from both the compound and the phrase.^[2] Old English also had the parallel compound middandæg.^[4] The same formation is found in Old Frisian middei, Middle Dutch middach (modern middag), Middle Low German middach, Old High German mittitag (modern Mittag) and Old Norse miðdagr;^[4][3][5][7] the OED thinks it was probably formed separately in each Germanic language, like midnight, midsummer and midwinter.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The middle of the day, when the sun is highest; noon: in Old English, in a short treatise on the length of shadows,^[4][9] and in Ælfric's Grammar, which glosses Latin meridies with middæg.^[7] In Old English and Middle English it also named the canonical hour of sext, held at midday.^[4][8][9]

Semantic evolution

The basic sense has hardly changed since Old English.^[4][9] Barnhart dates the Middle English forms mid dæi to 1135, middei to the Ancrene Riwle and the modern midday to about 1275.^[3] The Middle English Dictionary records phrases such as heigh midday, high noon, and devel of midday, a devil abroad at noon,^[2] and Chaucer uses the word nine times.^[10] The Church sense "sext" died out about 1500.^[4][9] From about 1425 to 1604 midday could also mean the south, the direction of the noon sun,^[4][9] as French midi does.^[8] The adjective, of or at midday, is recorded from before 1325, in the Cursor Mundi,^[3][5] and the count noun, a particular midday, from 1882.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – Old English middæg, midday, noon; also the hour of sext.^[3][4]
• 1135 – Middle English mid dæi.^[3]
• before 1325 – adjective, of or at midday.^[3]
• c. 1425 – the south (obsolete by 1604).^[4][9]
• 1500 – last record of the sense "sext".^[4]
• 1882 – a particular occurrence of midday.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The middle of the day; noon: We stopped for lunch at midday.^[11][6][4]
2. (obsolete, Old English–1500) The canonical hour of sext.^[4][6][8]
3. (obsolete, 1425–1604) The south.^[4][8]

Adjective

1. Of, at or around the middle of the day: a midday meal.^[11][8]

Related words

• noon
• meridian
• midnight

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
10. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
11. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins