November

Forms

November (feminine Novembris); third-declension three-termination adjective^[1] An older nominative Novembris is found in Cato.^[2][3] It was commonly abbreviated Nov. or Novemb.^[4]

Etymology

It is from Latin novem (“nine”), because it was the ninth month of the old Roman year, which began with March.^[4][3][5][1] The OLD compares the formation of December;^[4] Georges speaks of a suffix ⟨-ber⟩,^[2] and Wiktionary, calling the formation uncertain, suggests haplology of an earlier *novemmēmbris (“of the ninth month”), whose second part would go back to the word for “month”, mēnsis.^[1] The base goes back to Proto-Italic *newn̥ and Proto-Indo-European *h₁neun (“nine”).^[5]

Isidore of Seville held that the names of September to December combine a number with imber (“rain”).^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Cato,^[5] who is quoted by Priscian with the old form: “we did it in the month of October;^[3][7] November remained” (mense Octobri fecimus: Novembris reliquus erat).^[3][7]

Semantic evolution

It was an adjective, used with mēnsis “month” or alone as a masculine noun, and of the days of the month: the Kalends, Nones and Ides of November.^[4][2] After the Julian reform of the calendar November was the eleventh month, though it kept its name.^[4][2]

It lives on in the Romance languages, for instance Italian novembre,^[1][8] and English has the word from Old French and directly from Latin since about 1200.^[9]

Timeline

• 234–149 BC – Cato uses the old form Novembris.^[3][2][7]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero dates letters by the Nones of November.^[4][7]
• 1st century AD – Columella names the Kalends of November.^[3][7]
• 40–102/103 AD – Martial uses November alone as a noun.^[8][7]
• c. 310–394 AD – Ausonius counts November among the months of thirty days.^[3][7]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains the name from the number and the rains.^[6][7]
• c. 1200 – English takes over the name.^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of the month of November: mēnsis November, the ninth month of the Roman year before the Julian calendar reform, afterwards the eleventh.^[4][3]
2. Belonging to November: Kalendae Novembrēs, the first of November.^[4][2]

Noun

1. The month of November.^[4][8]

Related words

• December
• novem

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ 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
6. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
8. ^ a b c Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com