February

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English februarie,^[2][3] borrowed from Anglo-Norman feverer, also februarie and fevrier,^[4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin Februārius, short for mēnsis Februārius,^[4] from februa (“means of purification, expiatory offerings”), the plural of februum,^[4][6] with the suffix -ārius.^[4] A Roman festival of purification was held on the 15th of this month.^[4][2][5] The Latin plural is of uncertain origin:^[4][6][7] ancient authors called it Sabine,^[4][8][9] de Vaan, as reported by Etymonline, derives it from Proto-Italic *f(w)esro-, from an Indo-European word for "the smoking" or "the burning",^[6] Merriam-Webster compares fūmus (“smoke”),^[3][10] and the OED records a derivation from the base of Ancient Greek θεῖον (theîon, “sulfur”), which was used in purification.^[4] Compare French février, Spanish febrero, Portuguese fevereiro, Italian febbraio and German Februar.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The second month of the year: about 1225, in St Juliana,^[4] and about 1200 in the form feoverrer in Barnhart.^[11] Old English and Middle English texts often simply use the Latin Februārius,^[4][12] and Barnhart notes a record before 1150, perhaps in that form.^[11]

Semantic evolution

The first English forms came through French, among them feoverrer, feouereles and feverell,^[11][13] the l reflecting an alternation of r and l in Old French that was reinforced by averel, April.^[11] The Latin spelling was then restored, in the 14th century according to Etymonline and Ayto^[6][9] and the 15th according to the Oxford Dictionary of English,^[14] and Hoad finds forms of the older type as late as the 18th century.^[13] In the early Roman calendar it was the last month,^[6][11][4] and the OED says that January and February were added to the end of the year about 713 BC; the start of the year was moved to 1 January in 153 BC.^[4] The month displaced the Old English Solmōnað, said to mean "mud month".^[6][11][4] Its weather has shaped its uses: the proverbial February fill-dike dates from 1557, for the rain or snow of the month,^[4] and is recorded in the dialects of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Shropshire.^[15] Shakespeare's February face, quoted by Johnson (1755), is one full of frost, storm and cloud.^[16]

Timeline

• c. 1225 – the second month of the year.^[4]
• 1373 – the form februare.^[11]
• before 1398 – February personified, in Trevisa.^[4]
• 1557 – proverbs about the month's weather, in Tusser.^[4]
• 1999 – out of style, in American youth slang as reported by the Independent.^[17]

Meanings

Noun

1. The second month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, with 28 days, or 29 in a leap year.^[4][3][18]

Related words

• January
• March
• fume

Usage notes

The first r is often lost through dissimilation, the change or loss of one of two similar sounds in a word, and pronunciations with and without it are all in frequent use.^[3]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
12. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
13. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
16. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
17. ^ Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
18. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins