Emily Dickinson Lexicon

NOON, n. [Sax. non; D. noen; W. nawn; that is at the summit; said to be from naw, that is up or ultimate, that limits, also nine. It has been supposed that the ninth hour, among the Romanic, was the time of eating the chief meal; this hour was three o'clock, P. M. In Danish, none is an afternooning, a collation.]

1. The middle of the day; the time when the sun is in the meridian; twelve o'clock.
2. Dryden used the word for midnight. “At the noon of night.”