etymology - Is there a term for "midnight" that is like "noon"


"noon" is the term for the middle of the day, round about 12.00 to 13.00, and "midnight" is from 24.00 to 1.00, at night. "midnight" is just basically a prefix added to "night", whereas "noon" is a completely different word.


Why is it "midnight", and not some term like "noon"? Is there actually a term for "midnight", that is the equivalent of "noon"?



Answer



While there is not a one-word term for midnight similar to noon, there are several poetic phrases for the middle of the night such as dead of night and hush of night. And from Longfellow's "The Goblet of Life", we have the interesting noonday night:


http://books.google.com/books?id=s6k4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA51&dq=longfellow+noonday+night&hl=en&ei=gYTqTbGCL-jX0QH8xvWPAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=snippet&q=noonday%20night&f=false


And also these fun phrases from "The Two Rivers":


http://books.google.com/books?id=OnI4AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA34&dq=longfellow+outpost+of+advancing+day&hl=en&ei=boXqTarLLMHv0gGzmZmbAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBA#v=onepage&q&f=false


And of course there's this from Shakespeare's Hamlet:


http://books.google.com/books?id=sfp4WY8id1cC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22hamlet%22&hl=en&ei=zIPqTcy0EM_OgAeu7t3XCQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=witching%20time%20of%20night&f=false


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