noon (n.)

Noon is the middle of the day. The word comes from the Latin nona hora, the ninth hour, one of the fixed hours of prayer.¹²

Counted from around six in the morning, the ninth hour fell at about three in the afternoon. That is where noon was in English for a long time.¹²

Between the twelfth century and the fourteenth it moved to midday. Why is not settled. Unreliable clocks, daylight that stretches and shrinks with the northern seasons, and the fact that a day’s fast ended at nones have all been offered as reasons.¹²

Noon settled at twelve and stayed there. The hour it is named after is three hours later.

We’ll meet at noon.