----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Learning Kingdom's Cool Word of the Day for February 24, 1999
----------------------------------------------------------------------
noon [n. NOON]
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Today, noon is twelve o'clock in the daytime, or it is the moment when
the sun is at its highest point in the sky for the day. It's also
known as noontide, noontime, or midday. But noon was not always
twelve o'clock.
In the early Middle Ages, time was reckoned from the moment of
sunrise, rather than midnight. The time known in Latin as nona hora
(ninth hour) was also the appointed time of the church's Divine Office
of Nones, one of a series of seven such "canonical hours" that began
before dawn and ended after sunset.
Since the original Nones occurred nine hours after dawn it would fall
during what is now the afternoon. But by the twelfth century the word
"non" had become associated (in popular use) with some other event,
probably a midday meal, and the "appointed time" of the event had
slipped forward in the day.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Cool Word of the Day list membership: 57,911
----------------------------------------------------------------------
To subscribe, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/join/
To unsubscribe, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/change/
To become a sponsor, visit http://www.tlk-lists.com/sponsor/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright (c) 1999, The Learning Kingdom, Inc.
http://www.LearningKingdom.com
----------------------------------------------------------------------
