nones

Etymology 1

From Latin nōnus (“ninth”). As a day of the Roman calendar, via nōnae (“ninth days”) from the original Roman practice of counting forward to the next full or new crescent moon, the nones' occurrence 8 days before the ides of every month (9 counting inclusively) following the establishment of a fixed calendar, and from the Latin practice of treating most recurring calendrical days as plurals. Some scholars believe the name is a variant of the nundines (nūndinae fēriae (“ninth-day festival”)), the Roman market days held every eight days (9 counting inclusively), which were likely announced for each coming month by the Roman kings on the first-quarter days. As a time of day, via the plural form of Middle English, Anglo-Norman, & French none and Latin nōna (“ninth hour”) after the manner of earlier matins, vespers, etc. As a meal, from the time of day, whether from its plural, genitive, or the occasional adverbial sense of -s.

noun

1. (historical, often capitalized) The notional first-quarter day of a Roman month, occurring on the 7th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 5th day of all other months.
   Þa monðas þe habbað iiii nonas æfter kalendas... habbað to idus xiii dagas and to ii kalendas eahtatyne. Those months that have 4 nones after the kalends... have 13 days to the ides and eighteen to the second kalends. 10th century, Byrhtferð of Ramsey, Enchiridion (Ashmolean MS 328), Book I, Chapter ii, Section 22
   Þe caniculer dayes biginnyth in þe fiftenþe kalendis of august and endiþ in þe nonis of septembris, and so þey ben euene fifty as it is seide þere. The canicular days begin on the fifteenth kalends of August [i.e., July 18th] and end on the nones [i.e., 5th] of September, and so they are even fifty as it is said there. 14th century, John Trevisa trans. Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum, folio 119
   The Roman Month its several days divides By reckoning backwards, Calends, Nones, and Ides. 1679, J. Moxon, Mathematics made Easie, page 26
   As for the Nones, it was thought that the multitudes should avoid mass meetings then because after the kings were expelled, the Roman people particularly celebrated what they took to be Servius Tullius's birthday: because crowds notoriously thronged all the Nones—it being well-known that Servius was born on the Nones, though the exact month was uncertain—those in charge of the calendar were afraid that if the whole population gathered on a market day it might start to revolt out of yearning for the king, and so they took the precaution of keeping the Nones and market days distinct. 2011, Robert A. Kaster trans. Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book I, Chapter xiii, Section 18
   [March, May, Quintilis, and October] also have their Nones on the seventh, as Numa ordained, because Julius changed nothing about them. As for January, Sextilis, and December, they still have their Nones on the fifth, though they began to have thirty-one days after Caesar added two days to each, and it is nineteen days from their Ides to the following Kalends, because in adding the two days Caesar did not want to insert them before either the Nones or the Ides, lest an unprecedented postponement mar religious observance associated with the Nones or Ides themselves, which have a fixed date. 2011, Robert A. Kaster trans. Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book I, Chapter xiv, Section 8
   The interesting thing about these ceremonies is that they must have originated in a period when the Romans were using true lunar months based on the observation of the crescent moon. The Kalends then would have been the day after the evening on which the crescent had been first sighted, the Nones would have been the first day when the moon was at the first quarter... In the calendar of the late Republic the lunar months have disappeared and the days have been fixed into a rigid pattern. 2015, Agnes Kirsopp Michels, Calendar of the Roman Republic, page 21
   The third day before the nones of March is March 5th; the third nones of August is August 3rd; and the third of the nones of November is November 3rd.
2. (historical, sometimes capitalized) The ninth hour after dawn (about 3 pm).
   ...the same Liturgy of prayers be used both at Nones and Vespers. [With the note:] Nones was what we call three o'clock in the afternoon. 1709, John Johnson, The Clergy-Man's Vade Mecum, Pt. II, p. 101
   From noon till nones The brethren sate. 1805, Robert Southey, Madoc, Vol. I, xiii, 134
3. (Christianity) The divine office appointed to the hour.
   The Greek monks always listen to their reader recite Psalms 83, 84, and 85 from the Septuagint at nones.
4. (obsolete) Alternative form of noon: the sixth hour after dawn; midday (12 pm).
5. (obsolete) Synonym of lunch: a meal eaten around noon.
   I... ouer-seye me at my sopere and some tyme at nones. c. 1400, William Langland, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman (Laud MS 581), v. 378

Etymology 2

See Nones.

noun

1. Alternative form of Nones: atheists or those without religious affiliation.
   Both the religiously dis-identified ("nones") and the religiously committed report mystical experiences. 2003, Jacob A. Belzen, Antoon Geels, Mysticism: A Variety of Psychological Perspectives, page 50
   Stable nones, that is, people who report in both years that they have no religious affiliation, are, in fact, much less religious 2010, Robert D. Putnam, David E Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, page 591
   we have grouped people into nones (no religion), Jews, Catholics, mainline Protestants, and evangelical protestants. 2013, Michael Corbett, Politics and Religion in the United States