noon: [OE] Noon denotes etymologically the ‘ninth’ hour. It was adopted in the Old English period from Latin nōna, short for nōna hōra, the ‘ninth hour’. Reckoning the day from sunrise, on average six o’clock, this meant that ‘noon’ was three o’clock in the afternoon (which was originally when the office of nones [18] – a related word – was said in the Roman catholic church).
By the 12th century, however, we find noon being used for a ‘midday meal’, and in the early 13th century it had moved on to simply ‘midday’, so it appears that some forward shifting of a meal that had originally taken place in mid afternoon was responsible for altering the meaning of noon (modern English terms for mealtimes, such as tea and dinner, are equally slippery). => nine
noon (n.)
mid-12c., non "midday, 12 o'clock p.m., midday meal," from Old English non "3 o'clock p.m., the ninth hour," also "the canonical hour of nones," from Latin nona hora "ninth hour" of daylight, by Roman reckoning about 3 p.m., from nona, fem. singular of nonus "ninth" (see nones). Sense shift from "3 p.m." to "12 p.m." began during 12c., when time of Church prayers shifted from ninth hour to sixth hour, or perhaps because the customary time of the midday meal shifted, or both. The shift was complete by 14c. (same evolution in Dutch noen).
雙語例句
1. There is a ceaseless struggle from noon to night.
從中午到夜晚，爭斗沒有停歇。
來自柯林斯例句
2. He expected the transfer to go through by today's noon deadline.
他希望轉賬在今天中午的最后期限之前完成。
來自柯林斯例句
3. Government workers were made to punch time clocks morning, noon and night.
公務員早、中、晚都要打卡。
來自柯林斯例句
4. The conference chairman has set a deadline of noon tomorrow.
會議主席將明天中午定為截止日期。
來自柯林斯例句
5. Shops usually shut from noon-3pm, and stay open late.