month English · revision 3594

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=c. 750 (Old English mōnaþ)|origins=gem-pro *mēnōþ-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /mʌn(t)θ/^(Roach et al. 2011)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|enm|month]] (also [[m|enm|moneth]]), [[inh|ang|mōnaþ]],^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(SOED 2002) from [[gem-pro|*mēnōþ-]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) which is related to [[m|gem-pro|*mēnōn-|t=moon]], the source of [[moon]].^(Etymonline)^(Barnhart 1988)^(COED 2004) Its cognates include [[ofs|mōnath]], [[osx|mānoth]], [[nl|maand]], [[de|Monat]] and [[non|mánaðr]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline)^(SOED 2002) and Gothic has mēnōþs.^(Barnhart 1988)^(Etymonline) Outside Germanic, Barnhart compares [[lt|mėnuo]] and reconstructs Indo-European [[m|ine-pro|*mēnōt]].^(Barnhart 1988) Barnhart explains the link with the moon by the reckoning of a month from one full moon to the next.^(Barnhart 1988) Etymonline notes that in Greek and Latin the words from this root, [[grc|μήν|tr=mḗn]] and [[la|mēnsis]], came to mean only “month”, and new words were made for “moon”.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ A space of time, reckoned from any moment: before 900;^(OED 1989) one of the twelve divisions of the year, about 888.^(OED 1989) Barnhart dates Old English ''mōnaþ'' probably to about 750.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The lunar month, the time in which the moon goes through its phases, is recorded from about 1000,^(OED 1989) and Etymonline notes that this was the original sense.^(Etymonline) The solar month, a twelfth of the solar year, is also from about 1000.^(OED 1989) The nine months of pregnancy were reckoned in months from about 950,^(OED 1989) and ''month'' was used in the singular after a numeral (''twelve month'') from about 1175, a use now only dialectal.^(OED 1989) The Middle English spelling ''moneth'' survived probably from before 1200 through the 17th century.^(Barnhart 1988) ''A month of Sundays'', “a very long time”, is known from 1759,^(Cresswell 2021) and ''Word Origins'' suggests it alludes to the quiet, restricted Sundays of the past.^(Cresswell 2021) ''Monthly'' is from the 16th century.^(Hoad 1986)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 750 – Old English ''mōnaþ''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * c. 888 – one of the twelve months.^(OED 1989)

+ * c. 1000 – the lunar month; the solar month.^(OED 1989)

+ * before 1110 – Middle English ''monthe'' (''Peterborough Chronicle'').^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 16th century – ''monthly''.^(Hoad 1986)

+ * 1759 – ''a month of Sundays''.^(Cresswell 2021)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Noun===

+ # One of the twelve divisions of the year in a [[calendar]], especially the [[Gregorian calendar]].^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+ # A period from a date in one month to the same date in the next.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+ # A unit of time of about thirty days or four weeks, roughly one cycle of the moon's [[phase|alt=phases]].^(AHD)^(SOED 2002)

+ # ''(astronomy)'' The [[lunar]] or [[solar]] month.^(AHD)^(OED 1989)

+

+ ==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'',^(AHD) though ''a three months' vacation'' is also possible.^(AHD) A different word ''month'', from Gaelic, was used in Scotland for the Grampian mountains.^(OED 1989)^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}