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).
例文
1. There is a ceaseless struggle from noon to night.
昼から夜にかけて、争いはやまなかった。
2.He expected the transfer to go through by today 's noon deadline.
彼は今日の昼の締め切りまでに振替を完了することを望んでいる。
3.Government workers were made to punch time clocks morning， noon and night.
公務員は朝、中、夜とカードを打つ。
4.The conference chairman has set a deadline of noon tomorrow.
議長は明日の正午を締め切りとした。
5.Shops usually shut from noon ?3 pm，and stay open late.