meridian

Etymology 1

PIE word *médʰyos From Late Middle English meridian, meridien (“relating to midday or noon; southern; (astronomy) relating to the celestial meridian”) [and other forms], from Middle French meridien, Old French meridiane (“relating to midday; southern”) (whence Anglo-Norman meridien; modern French méridien), and from their etymon Latin merīdiānus (“relating to midday; southern”), from merīdiēs (“midday, noon; the south (due to the southward orientation of the sun at noon in the Northern Hemisphere)”) + -ānus (suffix meaning ‘of or pertaining to’). Merīdiēs is a dissimilated form of Old Latin medīdiēs (with the -d- sound shifted to -r-), from medius (“middle”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *médʰyos (“middle”)) + diēs (“day”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dyew- (“heaven, sky; to be bright”)).

adj

1. Relating to a meridian (in various senses); meridional.
2. (archaic except literary) Relating to midday or noon.
3. (obsolete)
   1. Relating to the culmination or highest point.
   2. Relating to the south; meridional, southern.

Etymology 2

The noun is derived from Late Middle English meridian, meridien (“midday, noon; position of the sun at noon; the south; longitude of a place; (astronomy) celestial meridian”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman meridien (“midday”), Middle French meridien (“midday; the south; terrestrial meridian; (astronomy) celestial meridian”) (modern French méridien), and Old French meridiane, meridiiene, and from their etymon Latin merīdiānum (“midday; position of the sun at noon; the south”), a noun use of the neuter form of merīdiānus (“relating to midday; southern”); see further at etymology 1. Sense 1.1 (“celestial meridian”) is ultimately modelled after Latin merīdiāna līnea (“meridian line”). Sense 5.2 (“midday rest; siesta”) is modelled after Late Latin meridiana (“midday; midday rest”), probably short for Latin merīdiāna hōra (“midday time”). The verb is derived from the noun.

noun

1. (astronomy)
   1. In full celestial meridian: a great circle passing through the poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith for a particular point on the Earth's surface.
   2. (also geography) In full terrestrial meridian: a great circle on the Earth's surface, passing through the geographic poles (the terrestrial North Pole and South Pole); also, half of such a circle extending from pole to pole, all points of which have the same longitude.
      In this Place of Venus the Hour and Amplitude of the Sun's Riſing, for one Half of the Year, are the ſame with thoſe of his Setting in the other Half; which will alſo happen in all Places under the firſt Meridian, where he riſes and ſets: […] 1746 March 31 (Gregorian calendar), James Ferguson, “VI. The Phænomena of Venus, Represented in an Orrery Made by James Ferguson, Agreeable to the Observations of Seignior Bianchini.”, in Philosophical Transactions. Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours, of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, volume XLIV, number 479, London: […] T. Woodward, […]; and C. Davis […] printers to the Royal Society, →DOI, →OCLC, paragraph 15, page 140
2. (by extension)
   1. The place on the celestial meridian where it is crossed by the sun or a star at its highest point.
      1. (figurative) The highest or most developed point, or most splendid stage, of something; culmination, peak, zenith.
      2. (figurative, specifically) Chiefly followed by of: the middle period of someone's life, when they are at their full abilities or strength; one's prime.
   2. A ring or half-ring with markings in which an artificial globe is installed and may spin.
   3. (mathematics) A line passing through the poles of any sphere; a notional line on the surface of a curved or round body (in particular, an eyeball).
3. (US, printing, dated) The size of type between double great primer and canon, standardized as 44-point.
4. (obsolete)
   1. The south.
   2. Midday, noon.
   3. A midday rest; a siesta.
   4. A particular area or situation considered as having a specific characteristic or identity; also, the characteristics, habits, or tastes of a specific group, locale, etc.
   5. (Scotland) An alcoholic drink taken at midday.

verb

1. (transitive) To cause an object to reach the meridian or highest point of (something).
   Simultaneously with the coming of the mist over earth and sea, where both seem merged into one, slowly and exactly at the same time on each side to the right and left rise and form gorgeous rainbows, that move gently up the sky. They ascend in pairs of the most brilliant color and hue. Upward they move until all the sky is meridianed with bows, which meet in a grand symphony of color in the zenith. 1889, Frederic Alva Dean, “Description of the Ancient Petoséga”, in The Heroines of Petoséga[…], New York, N.Y.: Hawthorne Publishing Company[…], →OCLC, page 10
   At the foot of the promontory on which stands Peng Lai Temple is the little Christian Church of Water City, a suburb of Teng-chou. In the church are hung these words: "One volume, Old and New Testaments, circling earth, meridianing Heaven. One seven-roomed Worship Hall, backing the sea, facing the City." 1922 July, “The Eighty-fifth Annual Report of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America [Shantung Mission]”, in Minutes of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. … Part III: The Reports of the Boards and Permanent Committees to the One Hundred and Thirty-fourth General Assembly, Des Moines, Iowa, May 18–25, 1922, volume I (Third Series), Philadelphia, Pa.: Office of the General Assembly,[…], →OCLC, page 157
   [T]reetops stare / Vertiginous and of two minds; and one / Is to let go; // The other, though, / Is to cling on, seeing clear / It is meridianed and centered by / The pure blue, the apple of its eye. 1954, E[dward] L[eslie] Mayo, “‘Whose Center is Everywhere’”, in David Ray, editor, Collected Poems (A New Letters Book), Kansas City, Mo.: University of Missouri; Athens, Oh.: Swallow Press, Ohio University Press, published 1981, page 86
2. (intransitive) Of a celestial body: to reach its meridian.
   At the opposition of 1892 [James Edward] Keeler […] found, on comparing his drawings meridianed by Marth ephemeris with photographs of a globe made by him from [Giovanni] Schiaparelli's chart and set to the longitude and latitude of the time of observation: […] 1895 May, Percival Lowell, “On Martian Longitudes”, in George E[llery] Hale, James E[dward] Keeler, editors, The Astrophysical Journal: An International Review of Spectroscopy and Astronomical Physics, volume I, number 5, Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 397
   By the time the moon meridianed, the weather had decidedly improved and the sea had gone down. 25 October 1902, “The Salving of the ‘Senator’”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Journal, volume V, number 256 (Sixth Series), London, Edinburgh: W. & R. Chambers, →OCLC, chapter IV, page 741, column 1
   Born in Massachusetts, in 1818, neath the shadow of Bunker Hill, and, incidentally of lineage with Robert Morris of Revolutionary fame, ere his life meridianed removing with his family to beautiful "blue grass Kentucky", the home of his heart, where he wrought well and his memory is revered. 1934, Proceedings of the Grand Chapter of Mississippi Order of the Eastern Star: Twenty-eighth Annual Session, Meridian, Miss.: Dement Bros. Print. Co., →OCLC, page 181
   The countable ribs meridianed over his blood's tides; / The scar-buttoned archipelago of his flexible spine; […] 1951, Poems 1951: The Prize-winning Entries for the Festival of Britain, Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, →OCLC, page 231

Etymology 3

acupuncture work depicting meridians associated with the heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, spleen, and stomach.]] Borrowed from French méridien or German Meridian (“pathway on the body along which life force is thought to flow”), from Latin merīdiānum (“midday; position of the sun at noon; the south”) (see further at etymology 2); the French and German words are calques of Mandarin 經／经, 经 (jīng, “pathway on the body along which life force is thought to flow; longitude; warp of woven fabric; to go or pass through”).

noun

1. (acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine) Any of the pathways on the body along which chi or qi (life force) is thought to flow and, therefore, the acupoints are distributed; especially, one of twelve such pathways associated with organs of the body.