meio-dia

Forms

meio-dia m (plural meios-dias)^[1] Old spellings are meyo dya and meyodya in the 13th century, meo dya and meodia in the 14th, and meodia in the 15th.^[2][3] Cardoso writes meo dia in 1569 and Pereira Meyo dia in 1697.^[4][5]

Etymology

It is formed from Portuguese meio + dia, “the middle (of the) day”, already as Old Galician-Portuguese meyo dya in the 13th century.^[2][3][1][6] meio is from Latin medius (“middle”).^[7] dia comes from *dia, a reshaping of diēs (“day”).^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss's first record, of the 13th century, has the sense “the middle of the day”.^[2] The Galician-Portuguese Crónica Troiana says that they kept at it ata ora de meo dia “until the hour of noon”, and the Crónica Geral has des meyodia ata a tarde “from noon until the evening”.^[9][10]

Semantic evolution

Houaiss dates the sense “south” to the 14th century; the Crónica Geral already has the word for both noon and the south.^[2][10] Aurélio explains the transfer: until the 15th century the lands and seas Europeans knew lay north of the Tropic of Cancer, so the sun at noon always stood to the south.^[11] Nascentes remarks that the name suits only the northern hemisphere.^[12] The word also names the southern countries or regions, and figuratively the prime of life.^[2][13]

Timeline

• 13th century – first records, spelt meyo dya and meyodya.^[2][3]
• 14th century – the sense “south”; spellings meo dya and meodia.^[2][3]
• 1569 – Cardoso glosses meo dia with Latin meridies.^[4]
• 1585 – meyo dya in a private letter.^[14]
• 1697 – Pereira heads it Meyo dia.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. noon, midday: the middle of the day, when the sun is highest; twelve o'clock.^[2][1]
2. The cardinal point south.^[2][1]
3. The southern part of a region, or the southern countries.^[2][13]
4. (figurative) The prime of life, the height of one's powers.^[2][11]

Related words

• meio
• dia
• meridiano
• meridional

Usage notes

The plural is meios-dias.^[1] Fazer meio-dia meant waiting for the sun to cross the meridian, and so resting and eating from one's provisions.^[13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. meio-dia
3. ^ a b c d Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. meio-dia
4. ^ a b Cardoso, Jerónimo (1569–1570), Dictionarium ex lusitanico in latinum sermonem, Lisboa: João Álvares (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meo dia
5. ^ a b Pereira, Bento (1697), Thesouro da lingoa portuguesa, in the 1697 edition of his Prosodia (1st ed. 1647; CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. meyo dia
6. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. meio-dia
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. meio
8. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. dia
9. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. meo dia
10. ^ a b Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. meyodia
11. ^ a b Ferreira, Aurélio Buarque de Holanda, Novo dicionário Aurélio da língua portuguesa, digital edition, p. s.v. meio-dia
12. ^ Nascentes, Antenor (1952), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, vol. 2: Nomes próprios, Rio de Janeiro, p. 231
13. ^ a b c Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. meio-dia
14. ^ CLUL (ed.) (2014), P.S. Post Scriptum: Arquivo Digital de Escrita Quotidiana em Portugal e Espanha na Época Moderna, Lisboa: Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, http://ps.clul.ul.pt, p. s.v. meio-dia