September

Forms

September (feminine Septembris); third-declension three-termination adjective^[1] As a noun: September m (genitive Septembris).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is from Latin septem (“seven”),^[4][5] because it was the seventh month of the Roman year, counted from March.^[4][2][6] The OLD compares the ending with that of December.^[4] Wiktionary calls its origin uncertain and suggests an earlier *septe(m)-mēmbris (“of the seventh month”), shortened by haplology, with a derivative of mēnsis (“month”).^[1]

Isidore of Seville explained the name by the number seven and by imber (“rain”), since it is the seventh month from March and brings rain.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan finds it first in Afranius (second half of the 2nd century BC),^[5][8] as an adjective meaning “of the seventh month”.^[5]

Semantic evolution

It was usually joined to mensis, mense Septembri “in September”,^[2][4] but was also used alone as a noun.^[4][3] It named the seventh month of the old year, which became the ninth.^[4][2] Lewis & Short note that it had thirty days, as now.^[2] Ecclesiastical Latin keeps both the adjective and the noun.^[9]

English took the name from Old French and directly from Latin in late Old English,^[6] and Latin September is also the source of Spanish setiembre and Italian settembre.^[6]

Timeline

• 2nd half of the 2nd century BC – Afranius uses it as an adjective.^[5][8]
• 116–27 BC – Varro uses it alone as a noun.^[3][8]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero writes mense Septembri.^[2][8]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it.^[2][8]
• c. 560–636 AD – Isidore of Seville explains it from the number seven and rain.^[7][8]
• late Old English – English borrows it as September.^[6]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of September: mensis September, the month of September.^[4][3]

Noun

1. September, the seventh month of the old Roman year, later the ninth.^[4][2][9]

Related words

• septimus
• December
• English September

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d 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 c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ a b Isidore of Seville, Etymologiarum sive Originum libri XX, ed. W. M. Lindsay (Oxford, 1911).
8. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
9. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson