/nəʊnz/
OriginFrom Latin nōnus (“ninth”).
As a day of the Roman calendar, via nōnae (“ninth days”) from the original Roman practice of counting forward to the next full or new crescent moon, the nones' occurrence 8 days before the ides of every month (9 counting inclusively) following the establishment of a fixed calendar, and from the Latin practice of treating most recurring calendrical days as plurals. Some scholars believe the name is a variant of the nundines (nūndinae fēriae (“ninth-day festival”)), the Roman market days held every eight days (9 counting inclusively), which were likely announced for each coming month by the Roman kings on the first-quarter days.
As a time of day, via the plural form of Middle English, Anglo-Norman, & French none and Latin nōna (“ninth hour”) after the manner of earlier matins, vespers, etc. As a meal, from the time of day, whether from its plural, genitive, or the occasional adverbial sense of -s.
- capitalized, historical, oftenThe notional first-quarter day of a Roman month, occurring on the 7th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 5th day of all other months.
“The third day before the nones of March is March 5th; the third nones of August is August 3rd; and the third of the nones of November is November 3rd.”
“Þa monðas þe habbað iiii nonas æfter kalendas... habbað to idus xiii dagas and to ii kalendas eahtatyne.
Those months that have 4 nones after the kalends... have 13 days to the ides and eighteen to th”
“Þe caniculer dayes biginnyth in þe fiftenþe kalendis of august and endiþ in þe nonis of septembris, and so þey ben euene fifty as it is seide þere.
The canicular days begin on the fifteenth kalends of”
- capitalized, historical, sometimesThe ninth hour after dawn (about 3 pm).
“...the same Liturgy of prayers be used both at Nones and Vespers.
[With the note:] Nones was what we call three o'clock in the afternoon.”
“From noon till nones
The brethren sate.”
- The divine office appointed to the hour.
“The Greek monks always listen to their reader recite Psalms 83, 84, and 85 from the Septuagint at nones.”
- obsoleteSynonym of lunch: a meal eaten around noon.
“I... ouer-seye me at my sopere and some tyme at nones.”
- pluralThose without any religious affiliation: atheists and others outside any organized religion.
“The second is the “Nones” proper, those who in response to the question “What is your religious tradition, if any?” answer “None.” […] Even among the “Nones” only a small minority identify as atheist ”
“The mobility of American society has done little or nothing to erode strong regional religious cultures such as those of the Catholics of the Northeast, the Lutherans of the Upper Midwest, the Baptist”
“He also found that the sons and daughters of two parents who have no religious preference (Nones) tend to become Nones.”
- A dialect of Italian spoken in parts of Trentino around the Non Valley.
Formsnones(plural) · Nones(alternative) · Non.(alternative) · nones(alternative)