noon English · revision 7731

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=borrowing|attested=c. 725|origins=la nonus}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /nuːn/ ''(UK)''; /nun/ ''(US)''^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|ang|nōn|t=the ninth hour from sunrise, about 3 p.m.; the office of nones]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) [[der|la|nona|alt=nōna hōra|t=ninth hour]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(NODE 1998) from nōna, the feminine of [[m|la|nonus|alt=nōnus|t=ninth]], from novem, [[nine]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Old Norse nón and Dutch noen were borrowed in the same way.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ The ninth hour of daylight, about 3 p.m., or the office of nones: about 725, in ''Beowulf'', in Barnhart, about 900 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ By Roman and church reckoning the hours of daylight were counted from sunrise, so the ninth hour was about 3 p.m.^(Etymonline)^(MW Word Histories) The shift to midday began in the 12th century, and non, midday, is in the ''Peterborough Chronicle'' in 1140;^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988) Word Origins dates the midday sense from about 1225 and finds it usual by the 14th century.^(Cresswell 2021) Explanations offered include the unreliability of medieval clocks, the varying length of daylight in the north, the end of monastic fasting at nones, which encouraged moving it earlier, and the time of the ordinary midday meal.^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) The midday meal itself was called noon from before 1175.^(OED 1989) From the 17th to the 19th century, ''the noon of night'' meant midnight.^(Etymonline)^(AHD) Hoad notes that ''before noon'' and ''after noon'' gave [[forenoon]] and [[afternoon]].^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 725 – nōn, 3 p.m.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1140 – midday.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * before 1175 – the midday meal.^(OED 1989)

+ * 14th century – midday the usual sense.^(Cresswell 2021)

+ * 1712 – the most important hour.^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # Twelve o'clock in the daytime; [[midday]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # The point at which the sun crosses the local [[meridian]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(poetic)'' The highest or most important point; the [[zenith]].^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[forenoon]]

+ * [[midnoon]]

+ * [[noonday]]

+ * [[nooner]]

+ * [[noontime]]

+ * [[high noon]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[nones]]

+ * [[nine]]

+ * [[afternoon]]

+ * [[noontide]]

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}