afternoon

Etymology

From Middle English afternone, after-non, equivalent to after- + noon.

noun

1. The part of the day from noon or lunchtime until sunset, evening, or suppertime or 6pm.
   Theſe men ſerue God in the forenoone, and the diuell in the after noone; 1601, Arthur Dent, Plaine Mans Path-way to Heauen, page 138
   And I love to live so pleasantly/Live this life of luxury/Lazing on a sunny afternoon/In the summertime 1966, The Kinks, Sunny Afternoon
2. (figurative) The later part of anything, often with implications of decline.
3. (informal) A party or social event held in the afternoon.

adv

1. (archaic in the singular) In the afternoon.
   I stayd at home till noone, and recᵈ of Crowders for 3 loods of shilling 2l. 8s.; and afternoone I went with my wife to Wakefeild, where by yᵉ way I spent at Toppitt 8d., and wee lay at Jackson’s all night. 19 March 1646, Adam Eyre, “A Dyurnall, or Catalogue of All My Accions and Expences from the 1st of January, 1646–[7]”, in Yorkshire Diaries and Autobiographies in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, published 1877, page 22
   Afterwards […] they adjourned the court till two in the afternoon, and so went to prayers. Afternoon they called over the names of the rest of the college, demys, chaplains, &c. 1688, “Proceedings against St. Mary Magdalen College in Oxon, for not Electing Anthony Farmer President of the said College”, in T. B. Howell, editor, Cobbett’s Complete Collection of State Trials, volume 12, published 1812, column 61
   Afternoon we came to Fuchen, or Xucheu, as others call it, where we were forced to stay to have the boat search’d by the Mandarine or customer. 1752 [1699], Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri, anonymous translator, A Voyage Round the World, page 289

intj

1. Ellipsis of good afternoon.