If you ’re a recent sleeper , you might find yourself thinking 12 p.m. seems way too early to be considered midday , and the wordnoonwould much good describe , say , 3 p.m. It turn out that ancient Romans would have agreed with you , if only foretymologicalreasons .
AsReader ’s Digestexplains , the days inancient Romewere split up into four periods of three hours each . The first hour was at sunrise around 6 a.m.—calledprime , forfirst — followed by 9 a.m. ( tierce , denoting the third hour ) , 12 p.m. ( sext , forsixth ) , and 3 p.m. ( none , forninth ) .
According toMerriam - Webster , Middle and Old English take over the time - keeping tradition , along with the Romance countersign forninth , which was changed tonōnand eventuallynoon . Though we ’re not certain exactly when or whynoonstarted referring to 12 p.m. alternatively of 3 p.m. , it could have something to do with Christian appeal traditions . In the Bible , Jesus ’s crucifixion is said to have take place at the ninth hour , and that ’s when worshippers partake in their second of three daily orison ; the others were in the morn and evening . It ’s potential that hungry Thelonious Sphere Monk were behind high noon ’s gradual transmutation from 3 p.m. to 12 p.m.—since their daily fasting did n’t stop until after the twelve noon entreaty , they had a build - in motive for incite it earlier .
While we did n’t exactly stay dead on target to the originalLatinmeaning ofnoon , there ’s another authoritative oddment of ancient Rome hiding in the way we tell time today . Romans referred to 12 p.m. asmeridiem , formidday , and so do we.A.M.is an abbreviation forante meridiem , orbefore twelve noon , andP.M.meanspost meridiem , orafter midday .
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