month
Pronunciation
- IPA: /mʌn(t)θ/[1]
Etymology
It is inherited from Middle English month (also moneth), inherited from Old English mōnaþ,[2][3][4] from Proto-Germanic *mēnōþ-,[3][2] which is related to *mēnōn- (“moon”), the source of moon.[2][3][5] Its cognates include Old Frisian mōnath, Old Saxon mānoth, Dutch maand, German Monat and Old Norse mánaðr,[3][2][4] and Gothic has mēnōþs.[3][2] Outside Germanic, Barnhart compares Lithuanian mėnuo and reconstructs Indo-European *mēnōt.[3] Barnhart explains the link with the moon by the reckoning of a month from one full moon to the next.[3] Etymonline notes that in Greek and Latin the words from this root, Ancient Greek μήν (mḗn) and Latin mēnsis, came to mean only “month”, and new words were made for “moon”.[2]
Earliest recorded meaning
A space of time, reckoned from any moment: before 900;[6] one of the twelve divisions of the year, about 888.[6] Barnhart dates Old English mōnaþ probably to about 750.[3]
Semantic evolution
The lunar month, the time in which the moon goes through its phases, is recorded from about 1000,[6] and Etymonline notes that this was the original sense.[2] The solar month, a twelfth of the solar year, is also from about 1000.[6] The nine months of pregnancy were reckoned in months from about 950,[6] and month was used in the singular after a numeral (twelve month) from about 1175, a use now only dialectal.[6] The Middle English spelling moneth survived probably from before 1200 through the 17th century.[3] A month of Sundays, “a very long time”, is known from 1759,[7] and Word Origins suggests it alludes to the quiet, restricted Sundays of the past.[7] Monthly is from the 16th century.[8]
Timeline
- c. 750 – Old English mōnaþ.[3]
- c. 888 – one of the twelve months.[6]
- c. 1000 – the lunar month; the solar month.[6]
- before 1110 – Middle English monthe (Peterborough Chronicle).[3]
- 16th century – monthly.[8]
- 1759 – a month of Sundays.[7]
Modern meaning
Noun
- One of the twelve divisions of the year in a calendar, especially the Gregorian calendar.
- A period from a date in one month to the same date in the next.
- A unit of time of about thirty days or four weeks, roughly one cycle of the moon's phases.
- (astronomy) The lunar or solar month.
Word family
- monthlong
- monthly
- twelvemonth
- calendar month
- flavor of the month
- lunar month
- month's mind
- sidereal month
Related words
- moon
- Monday
- menstruation
- menopause
- semester
Usage notes
The American Heritage Dictionary notes that month in the singular, after a number and a hyphen, forms a compound adjective, as in a three-month vacation,[9] though a three months' vacation is also possible.[9] A different word month, from Gaelic, was used in Scotland for the Grampian mountains.[6][10]
References
- ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
- ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
- ^ 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)