noontime

Meanings

1. Noon.
2. Approximately noon.
3. The time at which something peaks in some way (e.g., in vitality, in influence, in reknown) (by analogy with the waxing of the sun each day).

Etymology

From noon + time, perhaps an innovation of earlier English noontide (“noontime”), from Middle English noon tijd, from Old English nōntīd (“noontime”). Eclipsed non-native Middle English merian, merion (“noontime”) from Old French meriiene, merīane (“noontime”).