December
Pronunciation
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
- Of December, the tenth month of the original Roman year and, after Caesar's reform, the twelfth.[2][3][8]
Noun
Related words
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
- ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- ^ 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
- ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
- ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
- ^ a b c Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
- ^ a b c d e Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
- ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
- ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften