[AFTER- 1 + NOON; orig. a phrase; cf. L. post meridiem.]
1. The time from mid-day to evening. Formerly preceded by at, now in the, during the; and as a date on.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 358. ‘Go nu,’ quaþ heo, ‘sone And send him after none.’
1450. Gregory, Chron. (1876), 196. That same day, the aftyr non, the Duke of Yorke roode thoroughe London.
1463. Manners & Househ. Exp. Eng., 228. The nyte next afore tyl the sayd day at aftyr noyn.
1527. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. Ref., 38. I. 73. We abide passage which we trust to have this afternoon.
1570–87. Holinshed, Scot. Chron. (1806), II. 70. A terrible eclipse of the sun, at three of the clocke at afternoone.
1587. Turbervile, Trag. Tales. The king … To take a nappe at after noone, Into his chamber gotte.
1601. A. Dent, Path-way to Heaven, 123. These men serue God in the fore-noone, and the diuell in the after-noone.
1669. Pepys, Diary (1879), VI. 2. Spent the afternoon in several places.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Com. View, Wks. 1730, I. 146. Afternoon sleepy in most churches.
1829. Scott, Guy M., 217. The funeral was to proceed at one o’clock afternoon.
1842. Tennyson, Lotos-Eaters, 3. In the afternoon they came unto a land, In which it seemed always afternoon.
1877. Lytteil, Landmarks, II. ii. 97. Her remains were interred … where probably she had often, during her brief life, sat [printed sate] on summer afternoons admiring the majesty of the Arran Fells.
2. fig. as in the afternoon of life.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., III. vii. 186. Euen in the after-noone of her best dayes.
1864. Tennyson, Aylmer’s F., 461. My lady’s cousin Half-sickening of his pensioned afternoon.
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem, ix. 162. The world’s latest afternoon.
3. attrib.
1577. Tusser, Husb., lxix. 2. Afternoone doings till suppertime come.
1633. T. Adams, Exp. 2 Pet. iii. 3 (1865), 609/1. Calling for their afternoon-bevers, before they have concocted their dinners.
1711. Shaftesbury, Charact. (1737), II. 258. Reading an afternoon-lecture to his pupils.
1850. C. Reade, Christie Johnst., 155. The afternoon beams sprinkled gold on a long grassy slope.
1879. Miss Braddon, Vixen, III. 185. How fond you gentlemen pretend to be of afternoon tea.
4. Comb. afternoon(’s)-man, a tippler.
1614. Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1638), 196. Make him an afternoones man.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., Democr. to Reader (1657), 44. Beroaldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more then ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad.
