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).
雙語例句
1. All places on the same meridian have the same longitude.
在同一子午線上的地方都有相同的經(jīng)度.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
2. He is now at the meridian of his intellectual power.
他現(xiàn)在正值智力全盛期.
來自《簡明英漢詞典》
3. Meridian shares were recently up 12 per cent at 7.5 c.
Meridian公司 的股票最近上漲了百分之十二,達到了7.5c的股息.
來自互聯(lián)網(wǎng)
4. Only rarely did businesses of Schefenacker's or Meridian's size have to endure long insolvencies.