Richard: > > >> Noon itself derives originally from "nine" or the ninth hour after > sunrise (probaby 3pm :-) and not when it is apparently highest in the sky.
Richard Mallett asked: > > So how and when did it get shifted from 3 pm to midday ? > Klaus Eichholz wrote: >My answer is "High noon" is correlated with the temporal hour "None" >used by the monks. But as the Benedict rules demanded to have no food >before this time it changed more and more foward. The same thing >happened with "vesper". [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > ...My understanding is that it derives from the term "haute nones", i.e. the > time during the period of nones when the sun is at its highest. Since nones > is the early pm period, this makes it the same as our noon. > > By contrast, the term "bas nones" would be the time when the sun is lowest > during nones, but luckily we have no equivalent modern term "Low Noon" as > that would really confuse us all! I will try a summary. The term "nones" is Latin and the way that the Romans divided up time is a subject in itself. Their way of reckoning was inherited by the Christians and is still part of the way religious name parts of their daily office or cycle of prayers. [As a child educated by nuns, I recall that the convent bell rang at noon when we then recited specific prayers. Of course the bells rang at twelve noon precisely or 'high noon' as opposed to early or later]. The matter of how the Roman/Christian church reckoning of time became what we use today is another subject but no mystery. I just do not know where to direct you to look, Richard. Try a web search. I am sure that when the reckoning of longitude came into the argument, "high" noon became crucial and on this group we can all relate to that. BTW I hope you have all had the opportunity to see the wonderful Charles Sturridge film "Longitude" based on Sobel's book. Maria Brandl Mallacoota 37° 32' 60S 149° 45' 0E -
