December

Forms

December (feminine Decembris); third-declension three-termination adjective^[1] As a noun the month is December, genitive Decembris, masculine.^[2][3] Inscriptions have the spellings dekem and dicimbr, and the word is commonly abbreviated dec.^[2]

Etymology

It is from Latin decem (“ten”),^[4][5] because it was the tenth month of the old Roman year, which began with March.^[5][1][3] How the ending was formed is uncertain.^[1] The OLD reconstructs *decemo-membris, from decimus “tenth” and a form of mēnsis “month” with the suffix seen in sēmestris.^[2] Wiktionary likewise suggests, with a “perhaps”, a haplology of an earlier *deke(m)-mēmbris (“of the tenth month”), from *deke(m)-mēnzris, made of ⟨decem⟩ and a derivative of *mēns (“month”).^[1] Lewis & Short instead took ⟨-ber⟩ as a suffix akin to -fer (“bearing”).^[3] Ancient grammarians knew that the months from Quintilis to December were named from their numbers: Varro says so.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

It appears in inscriptions of the 1st century BC,^[6] and de Vaan records it from Cicero on;^[4] Cicero dates a letter by nonis illis Decembribus, “those Nones of December”.^[2]

Semantic evolution

It was first an adjective, “of December”, agreeing with mensis “month” or with the names of days such as the Kalends and Nones.^[2][7] Used alone as a masculine noun, it named the month itself.^[2][8] December was the tenth month of the Roman year until Julius Caesar's revision of the calendar, and the twelfth and last after it.^[2] Because the Saturnalia fell in it, Horace speaks of libertate Decembri, “with December freedom”, the licence of the festival,^[2][7] and poets give the month epithets of cold and wine.^[2][8] In the plural it could count years: Horace says he has completed “four times eleven Decembers”.^[2][8] English took the name through Old French in late Old English.^[5]

Timeline

• 1st century BC – Inscriptions record the month name.^[6]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it as an adjective with the Nones.^[2][4][6]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it alone as the name of the month.^[2][6]
• 65–8 BC – Horace speaks of the “December freedom” of the Saturnalia and counts his years in Decembers.^[2][6]
• before 66 AD – Petronius has a character ask whether it is December.^[2][6]
• late Old English – English takes the name, through Old French, as December.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of December, the tenth month of the original Roman year and, after Caesar's reform, the twelfth.^[2][3][8]

Noun

1. The month of December.^[2][3][9]
2. (poetic, plural) Years, counted by their Decembers.^[2][8]

Related words

• decem
• mensis
• English December

Usage notes

December was also used as a personal name, as in the Digest.^[2][10] Gaffiot heads it as a noun and treats the adjective under it.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f 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 r Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
7. ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
9. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften