Etymology Word of the Week – As some of you know, in addition to working in the Admissions Office, I also teach Latin at Saint Ignatius and am something of a "word nerd." Thus, each week, I’ll sneak a vocabulary word (sometimes derived from Latin, sometimes not) into the e-blast. Here then is this week’s edition of the Etymology Word of the Week.
Noon - “midday; twelve o’clock in the daytime.” From the Latin ordinal numeral/adjective nonus, nona, nonum meaning “ninth” - the canonical hour of “nones” or 3 p.m. was calculated to be 9 hours after sunrise (6 a.m.). Nones and nonus are related to the Latin cardinal numeral novem meaning “nine.” (All information is from www.wikipedia.org, www.etymonline.com and/or www.dictionary.com)
RELATED WORDS/PHRASES – November (was the 9th month originally, until January and February were added later), novena (devotion consisting of nine separate days of prayers/services), nonagenarian (person aged between 90-100 years), nonagon (plane figure having 9 angles and 9 sides)