June

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin Iūnius, short for mēnsis Iūnius (“month of June”), the Latin name used in Old English and early Middle English;^[2][3][4][5] the later forms are partly borrowed from Anglo-Norman juin, junie, juing and Old French jun as well (modern French juin).^[2][5][4][6] The Latin adjective is formed from Iūnō, the goddess Juno, with the suffix -ius,^[2][7][8] or is a variant of Iūnōnius (“sacred to Juno”);^{[9][10][11][4][12]} Collins, Skeat, Weekley and Merriam-Webster instead derive it from the Roman family name Iūnius, which Merriam-Webster takes as probably related to Juno.^{[13][6][14][15]} The OED compares Spanish junio, Portuguese junho, Italian giugno, Dutch juni, German Juni and Swedish juni.^[2][14] The Latin name replaced the Old English name Ǣrra Līða (“the earlier Litha”).^[12][14][2] The American verb is perhaps a use of the noun,^[2][10] although Merriam-Webster calls its origin unknown.^[15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The sixth month of the year: in the Peterborough copy of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, for the year 1110 ("On Iunies monðe ætywde an steorra", in June a star appeared).^[2][5][4] Barnhart dates the Old English Junius to about 1050,^[4] and the OED quotes the Latin name in earlier Old English texts, such as the Menologium and Byrhtferð's Enchiridion.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The form June appears around 1300, in Arthour and Merlin ("Mirie it is in time of June").^[5][4][12] Beside it Middle English had Juyn, from Old French, recorded before 1387,^[4][5] and Chaucer used both Junius and Juyn.^[16] Because capital I and J were not told apart until the 17th century, the spelling Iune lasted until then.^[2][12] A 15th-century translator of Higden took Iunius for Latin iūnior, younger, and wrote that the month was ordained "of yonger men".^[2] In 19th-century dialect a June-bug was a green beetle in Kent and Sussex and the ladybird in north Yorkshire, and in Ulster "the long eleventh of June" was a saying for anything long.^[17] In American colloquial English the verb june meant to move briskly or to wander restlessly from 1869, and to drive animals briskly from 1903; a writer in Dialect Notes (1896) took it from the humming of June bugs.^[2][10][17]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – Old English Junius, the Latin name.^[4]
• 1110 – Iunies monðe, in the Peterborough Chronicle.^[2][5][4]
• c. 1300 – the form June, in Arthour and Merlin.^[5][4][12]
• before 1387 – Juyn, from Old French.^[4][5]
• 1869 – verb, US, to move briskly, to wander about restlessly.^[2]
• 1903 – verb, to drive briskly.^[2][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. The sixth month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 30 days, between May and July: The school year ends in late June.^[13][15][2]

Verb

1. (US, colloquial and dialect) To move briskly or hurry; to wander about restlessly.^[2][10]
2. (US, dialect, rare) To drive animals briskly.^[15][2]

Word family

• Juneberry
• Juneteenth
• June beetle
• June bug

Related words

• Juno
• July

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
6. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
11. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
15. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
16. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
17. ^ a b 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)