- Forum >
- Topic: Latin >
- "Meridies est."
15 Comments
405
Meridies also means South, which makes a lot of sense in the Northern Hemisphere (cf. French Midi or Italian Mezzogiorno).
681
In German Mitternacht and Mittag also meant North and South, but now they are archaic in that sense. Medianoche has never meant North in Spanish, as far as I know; besides norte, se(p)tentrión has been used. Mediodía is not as common as sur, however.
1895
In Italian meridiana is also the word for "sundial" (as they have to face south to work!). I have seen the term meridionale to refer to southern locations (for example, the southern boundary of a plot of land) in many older Italian legal documents.
The equivalent for "meridionale" seems to exist in every Romance languages I've realized. In French the noun is "midi" (noon, midday) and the adjective is "meridional(e)". It's not an old term in French, but in modern French, it started to refer rather to the "Midi" region of France (Southern France).
918
Media nox est (based on my Pocket Oxford Latin dictionary).
Wiktionary also lists intempestum as a Medieval Latin word for midnight.