Meaning a person of high rank or distinction is attested from c.1500 in English; as a longer way to say person, the word was in use from 1550s (but often slyly ironical, with suggestion that the subject is overly self-important).
If your system is standalone, the default sync interval for system time is 604800 seconds (7 days). If you are in a domain environment, the default sync interval is 3600 seconds (0.04166667 days). If you are using XP Pro, you can adjust your settings using Group Policy editor (GPedit - Administrative Templates\System\Windows Time Service\Time Providers) or you can adjust things through a registry edit (works for any version of XP).
This equates to around a third of the time a person is awake, and is twice as often as many people even realise. 1  A study has discovered that the average person checks their device 85 times a day, spending a total of five hours browsing the web and using apps.