meridian的词源

英文词源

meridian

meridian: [14] Etymologically, meridian denotes the ‘middle of the day’. It comes via Old French from Latin merīdiānus, a derivative of merīdiēs ‘mid-day’. This was an alteration of an earlier medidiēs, a compound noun formed from medius ‘middle’ (source of English medium) and diēs ‘day’. The application of the word to a circle passing round the Earth or the celestial sphere, which is an ancient one, comes from the notion of the sun crossing it at noon.
=> medium

meridian (n.)

mid-14c., "noon," from Old French meridien "of the noon time, midday; the Meridian; southerner" (12c.), and directly from Latin meridianus "of midday, of noon, southerly, to the south," from meridies "noon, south," from meridie "at noon," altered by dissimilation from pre-Latin *medi die, locative of medius "mid-" (see medial (adj.)) + dies "day" (see diurnal). Cartographic sense first recorded late 14c. Figurative uses tend to suggest "point of highest development or fullest power."

The city in Mississippi, U.S., was settled 1854 (as Sowashee Station) at a railway junction and given its current name in 1860, supposedly by people who thought meridian meant "junction" (they perhaps confused the word with median).

中文词源

meridian：子午线，经线

来自拉丁语meridies,中午，来自medius,中间的，词源同middle,字母d被r音化，dies,天，词源同diurnal.引申词义中午的太阳，并用于地理学术语子午线，经线。

该词的英语词源请访问趣词词源英文版：meridian 词源，meridian 含义。

meridian：正午；子午线

来源于拉丁语中由medius(中间的)和dies(日)组成复合词medidies,其变体为meridies(日中),派生了meridianus,经古法语进入英语。

词根词缀： meri(-medi-)中间 + -di-日 + -an名词词尾