Afternoon

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˌɑːf.təˈnuːn/

Definitions

1. The period of the day between noon and evening
2. The time span after midday extending until the evening hours
3. A segment of the day following noon and leading up to nightfall

Etymology: "Afternoon" is a plain compound: "after" joined to "noon," which in Middle English meant the ninth hour of the day, roughly three in the afternoon by the old canonical clock, rather than the midday moment we now call noon. Noon itself came from Latin "nona," the ninth hour, so the word has always been tied to a time-count rather than to the sun's position. The compound took shape in Middle English as "afternone" and "after-non," where it named the stretch of daylight following that hour. Over time the boundaries shifted. Once "noon" moved to mean midday, "afternoon" slid backward to cover the period after it, and the word kept its older sense of a late-day period in the same spirit. The result is a term that preserves a monastic hour-reckoning inside an ordinary word most speakers never think about.

Synonyms: midday, noon, postmeridian, lunch hour, daytime

Antonyms: morning, night, evening, dawn, midnight