Where did the Months get their Names?

Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel! Get up to 65% OFF your subscription HERE: go.babbel.com/...
Patreon: / generalistpapers
Sources:
The Roman Calendar by Calendars through the Ages, curated by Maichael Douma
www.webexhibits...
Founding the Year: Ovid's Fasti and the Poetics of the Roman Calendar by Molly Pasco-Pranger
What's in a name? Months of the year by The British Museum
blog.britishmu...
Bede: The Reckoning of Time translated with commentary by Faith Wallis
Music:
Midnight Tale, Dreamy Flashback and Sneaky Snitch by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
creativecommons...

[@TheGeneralistPapers]

Start speaking a new language in 3 weeks with Babbel! Get up to 65% OFF your subscription HERE: go.babbel.com/1200m65-youtube-thegeneralistpapers-june-2022/default

[@Amy-ky5wr]

Great video! You've corrected a false belief I've had since grade 4 at school. I remember my teacher said there were originally January to December without July and August, so the year was divided into 10 months. That explained why the final 3 months are named after 7, 8 & 9, 10 even though they were the 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th. Then they realised there should be two more months, that's when they inserted July and August named for Julius and Augustus Caesar. I had no idea July and August were just renamed, and it was January and February that were inserted! Neither did my teacher I now realise! Good old Mrs Hart though, I remember her being a good, kind teacher.

[@hatedsaints]

Shout out to the Africans for helping them “realize” that they were 2 months short.

[@yash1152]

6:10 i knew these would be brushed off. u earned a well deserved "feedback"

[@bea7436]

I found you recently through the Prince of Wales explanation video. Love your videos and this one is very interesting as well!!

[@samueltekola2377]

Me too!!

[@freesimorgh]

What video?

[@markjosephbacho5652]

Same

[@rachelgarber1423]

Thirty days hath September April June and November all the rest have 31, excepting February alone... forget the last part. Learned that about seventy years ago

[@opts9]

..which has 28 days clear, and 29 each leap year!

[@Tree]

In Portuguese the word for April is only one letter off from "opened", Abril (month) abriu (verb) also the words juniores (preteens) and maiores (over 18) are still spelled like that and somewhat used, but as I said "maiores" doesn’t necessarily means elders, it just means you're not underage: "maiores de idade". The month of "May" is spelled "Maio" which is only letter off "maior" (from which the plural is maiores) and "June" is spelled "Junho" but many people often misspell it "Júnior", because it sounds the same, and yet again, yes "júnior" is the singular word for "juniores", meaning "young". So yeah, I feel like Ovid might’ve had a point. 😅 Also I love how Portuguese spelling is still so close to old Latin when comparing to our sister languages. :)

[@jonaskoelker]

> "maiores" [...] just means you're not underage Being a "major" means you're not a minor. Got it, makes sense.

[@adsones]

Muito bom.

[@kjoommen2869]

Very good. The 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months have their origins in the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) languages which Sanskrit belongs to, in which “Saptha” means 7, “Ashta” means 8,“Nava” means nine and “Dasa or Dasha” means 10 which in Latin (Roman) were “septa, octo, nona and deca”. Thus their Sanskrit names were “Sapthambre, Octambre, Navambre and Dasambre”, possibly meaning the “openings” of the 7th to the 10th months instead of “Septilis, Octilis, Novillis and Deccilis”. When Sosigenes, the Alexandrian astronomer was commissioned by Julius Caesar, he added the months “Quintilis” and “Sextilis” as the 5th and 6th months, pushing the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months to their current positions of 9th to the 12th, losing their original meanings. Quintilis and Sextilis were later renamed July and August to honor Julius and Augustus Caesars. September, October, November and December are English vulgarizations of the original Sanskrit names of “Sapthambre, Octambre, Navambre and Dasambre”. (Non-English spellings are approximations and are not phonetically corrected).

[@Vampirecronicler]

I like PIE.

[@johnlark8545]

They lied about the calender ... Sept-7 Oct-8 Nov-9 Dec-10 13 months 28 days New moon represents New month April is the first month Abib

[@NathanDudani]

Interpreting them from March 25th being the day of the new year yields realization as to the meaning of the months beginning with Septem-, Octo-, Novem-, & Decem-

[@GarfieldRex]

So we missed on having a month named Luperary

[@mascatrails661]

I learned a little trick in my youth that helps with keeping track of which months have 31 days and which are less. Make a fist and start with January at the knuckle bone of the index finger, moving towards the pinky, count the months along with the throughs and peaks along the knuckles, so Feb is the space between the index knuckle and the middle-finger knuckle, then March is the middle-finger knuckle, May is the space between the mid-fing and the ring finger, and so on, until you get to July at the pinky knuckle, then you cycle back to the index knuckle for August and keep going. All the months that are at the peaks of the knuckles have 31 days. All the ones that fall in the lower troughs between the knuckle bones are shorter - all have 30 days except February. You're on your own for remembering how many days that month has...

[@americanphilosophy2701]

I always stop what I am doing to want your videos when I get the notification!

[@robertbennett2787]

While somewhat indirect, Janus, being the God of transitions, doorways, and changes, almost always represented with a key and having 2 faces matches well with the Greek goddess, actually the last remaining titan, Hekate, who is the goddess of changes, transitions, crossroads, and magic. She is also almost always represented with a key, dagger, or torch and has 3 faces in her form of triodotos. While indirect it is a decent parallel.

[@toddbowman3035]

Best summary on this topic I have seen!

[@carlycharlesworth1497]

That was fascinating. Thank you for posting this video. God bless you and all those you love. Have a great day!

[@lexx2645]

You always make the best videos. Thank you for all the hard work you put into your videos, I always look forward to seeing more!

[@aldrinmilespartosa1578]

September to December might have no special meaning in Rome but at least in the Philippines, its practically Christmas, in which is called "Ber-months".

[@huskytail]

If you wonder how many days a month has you can follow the knuckles of your hands. Put your two hands together palms down or in fists. Then start counting from any end first knuckle - January, the dip between the knuckles - February, second knuckle - March, dip, knuckle, dip, etc. 😉 I know nowadays we eat, sleep and go to the toilet with our phones but it's a fun way that I still use

[@ΗλίαςΠαπαδάτος-χ3ξ]

In greek the word for spring, the season, is άνοιξη, which derives from the word ανοίγω, meaning to open. So, Aprilis from aperire makes really sense.

[@habdenkanalvoll8489]

Very well researched, resumed and explained. 👍 Since I've learned Latin in school I already knew about the months 7-10 as well as the origins of March, July and August but I didn't know all the details about January, February, May and June, so thank you for clarifying that.

[@stischer47]

There was a game I played with my students learning English when, after learning terms indicating "number" (OCTOpus, BIcycle, QUADRUped), I would ask them what is the seventh month of the year. They would answer "July". I would reply, "No, it's SEPTEMber. Just like OCTOber is the eighth, NOVEMber the ninth, DECEMber the tenth." Which would lead into further discussions about where English names of things came from.

[@lisaalexander2011]

That was very interesting, I enjoyed it!

[@pinkgreenmelon2209]

this was such a great video and i’m a big fan of this type of content keep it up 👍

[@AnUndivine]

Besides being informative, I find your videos quite relaxing. The pre-renaissance music and your calm voice with images of you chilling on an easy chair. I love the ambience you create.

[@tommunyon2874]

If you want to know the origins of some Americans ask them to pronounce February and Wednesday.

[@ozzy194870]

In Old English, Wednesday was called 'Wodensdæg'.

[@Saucyakld]

Hahaha!

[@kcstorm01]

Could you clarify your comment please? I don’t understand how the pronunciation of Wednesday and February is related to the origins of Americans.

[@serious_nigga]

@@kcstorm01 He did say "some" Americans.

[@tommunyon2874]

@@kcstorm01 Came from watching The Weather Channel. The meteorologist that says "Windsday" mentioned where he was from. It came as no surprise to me. I've lived where people say "Febuairy," because they've heard it that way, even though it was a college town where, obviously, people knew how to read and write, yet they never caught on to having the 'r' before the 'u'.

[@anasqaderi]

video starts at 1:56

[@pleiadescons3011]

I think the months of July and August were added to the Roman calendar and named after Julius Caesar and Augustus Caesar, respectively. The names of the other months, such as January (named after Janus) and February (named after Februa), have ancient origins that predate the time of Julius and Augustus Caesar.

[@cricketdhamaka1973]

Thanks for the video

[@مرادمحمدصبري]

Thanks a lot

[@Ty-ie2mi]

I love this channel.

[@heartless_raven]

It’s an absurdity that the new year starts in the dead of winter and not on the Spring Equinox. There should be 3 proper months for each season and a new season should start on the 1st, 4th, 7th and 10th months for Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

[@MichaelRothwell1]

I very much enjoyed this informative video, but would like an answer to this question: If the first month was initially March, when and why did it switch to January?

[@omgmatthew100]

It was switched in the 15/16th century!!!

[@TheSec09]

At the end of the video, he mentioned the months of January and February were added in the 8th century by Pompilius.

[@maryocecilyo3372]

Obrigado!

[@Gingerbred_Hed]

Ksp in the background is awesome

[@EmmanuelGoldstein3]

Interesting that the Romans themselves didn't know the origin on some of their month names. I always assumed that February meant "the month of fevers," given that in the Romance languages its name is nearly identical to fever. But now I realize that probably our word for fever likely derives from Februa, since a fever is a form of purification.

[@forgottenfamily]

Roman history dates back to 753BC which predates any historical writers - the "father" of history, Herodotus, who has the oldest surviving account intended to actually document what has happened, wasn't born until 484BC. He was Athenian so there was some time still before writing history made its way to Rome. The first Roman historian would be around the time of the Second Punic war in the late 3rd century BC. All information predating that date was passed mostly orally and what was recorded is what the people who could write thought worth recording. Great conflicts and world altering events were quite common concerns. Politics of the day got some recordings especially since the politicians used writing to advertise their actions to their peers or denounce each other. Etymology... that's a very modern concern and so those sorts of things would be most remembered in the day if they were relevant to activities that were occurring.

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

You don't mess with people that got a month named after them! That's one for the history books, as they say....

[@ilajoie3]

That's why I'm going to change December to Ivan's the best month

[@VaxtorT]

I have read that originally before the Flood, there were 10 months of 30 days as there was only 300 days in a year. Then during the Flood the Earth got knocked off it's original axis and orbit.......and for generations following the calendar had to be updated as the number of days in a year continued changing till an equalibrium was reached.

[@lionelmessi00094]

Before Roman Empire there have been already a calendar, in other country

[@surelyijest]

You don't discuss the reasons for the first four month names - which makes sense, since they're lost to history, but it seems like we can make some educated guesses. In addition to war, Mars was associated with agriculture, and was also the god of the wilderness. Thus it makes sense that the month when fields were tilled and planted would be dedicated to him. The next 3 months, representing the main growing season, are all named after goddesses associated with fertility: Aphrodite specifically represented agricultural fertility; Maya was the goddess of the earth; and Juno, greatest of the goddesses, is a logical choice for the beginning of the harvest season.

[@troypaddy5041]

September was named after Septimius Severus a black emperor

[@Jaden_CH]

1:54 Badbell

[@valacarno]

The atrocity of starting the year in the middle of winter is the most demonic thing, that baffles me to this very day. We still continue to celebrate new year coming during great Easter days, like normal people - together with the nature.

[@2cleverson2]

really interesting

[@JohnnyLodge2]

Getting rid of january and february would be so cool

[@shubhamsrivastava8368]

I think you need to use word English months not just months because their are other countries too in the this planet and they have different name for months.

[@reginajohnson188]

April is really the first month and Sept is the 7th month Nov is the 9th month when looking at the real meaning of this because we really have 13 lunar phases and 13 Zodiacs so what is all the others

[@Geker3]

Well, and than there's little Czechia with names of months: Leden, Únor, Březen, Duben Květen, Červen, Červenec, Srpen, Září, Říjen, Listopad and Prosinec. Try to make a video about how these got their names. :D

[@drhh1agoc374]

Can you please explain origin of the word calendar?

[@valmarsiglia]

Janus, many-headed? He had one head, two faces.

[@bhaskarsrinivasan1822]

But why you people convinenthly hide the orgin of the name of month from september to december.

[@e.b.6144]

And these parasite gods still have their names in the months because they're still in power.

[@ThanasisChristodoulou]

2:05" Mars the roman God. (...) GREEK GOD ΑΡΗΣ Ο ΘΕΟΣ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ, άσχετε!

[@CrazyBunny123]

strangely enough, I learned about this from Animaniacs of all places

[@sulaimaanahmad]

sunday, dimanche يـوم الأحـد monday, lundi يـوم الإثـنـين tuesday, mardi يـوم الـثـلاثــاء wednesday, mercredi يـوم الأربـعاء thursday, jeudi يـوم الخـمـيـس friday, vendredi يـوم الـجـمـعـة saturday, samedi يـوم الـسـبت

[@DN-123]

All started from India

[@DN-123]

@علي يا سر son you are a kid now…. Maybe it will take another 500 hundred years to you for understanding the true facts of the universe…. First you tell me that the Earth 🌍 is Flat or Spherical…. Now I tell you Aath or Eight is a Sanskrit term and here comes October…. Dasam is a Sanskrit term meaning Ten and here comes December…. I should tell you December is not the last month of the year… it is only 10th out of 12

[@augustuscaesar8287]

Your bad memory's and lack of attentiveness is why you all forget the days in a month. #NotMyFault

[@islandlanguage3349]

I thought January only became the first month of the year under the Gregorian calendar, not during the Roman monarchy

[@SD-fk8bt]

You are absolutely right.

[@islandlanguage3349]

@@SD-fk8bt It turns out all a bit confusing. Julius Caesar's calendar had January 1 as the first day of the year instead of March 1, but in medieval Europe they started celebrating the feast of the Annunciation (March 24) as the first day of the year, coincidentally moving the new year back to March like the Roman monarchical times

[@SD-fk8bt]

There are n number of oriental calendars all of them being lunar. Only the Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar.

[@SD-fk8bt]

@علي يا سر how.

[@patrickshepherd1341]

I don't like it when I get Uranus on my hands.

[@Italian-Royalist]

My questione Is, why in Rome, Sunday Is the seventh day of the week and in England it's the First?🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@justinamusyoka4986]

Rome changed the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.

[@mollysurey6058]

sound effects in background make this very difficult to listen to.

[@hippo1701]

Why do you call the Roman gods Olympians? Olympius was in Greece. Also, Babel doesn't have the language I learned in college: Welsh.

[@pmajudge]

LOVELY !!! THANKS ! FROM U.K. (2022).

[@saigonmonopoly1105]

the calendar were copy from egypt not greece

[@Dee-JayW]

The worst is americans saying axed instead of asked.

[@saigonmonopoly1105]

hang on dint julius got it from egypt? then why the olympian name matter ?

[@DanNaim400]

I found it weird the month october comes from the word Octo to mean eight..but it’s the 10th month In the calender same as September November and December (7th 8th 9th 10th)…

[@NTZCh7]

A comment in this section explains the mismatch. "July" and "August" were later additions. Originally, September, October, November, December were the 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th months respectively. Shabbat Shalom!

[@kjoandsko]

Counting from January, it was the 8th month in the ancient Roman (lunar) calendar which only had 10 months. When Julius Caesar commissioned the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes, he changed the calendar to the Egyptian Solar system and added Quintilis and Sextilis as the 5th and 6th months, pushing the 7th to the 10th months (Sapthambar, Octambar, Navambar and Dashambar (of Sanskit origin, used in the ancient Rman Calendar) to the 9th to the 12th month and thereby those months lost their numerical meanings.

[@AYVYN]

You could honestly completely change the calendars by rallying the Christians against paganist Astrologers

[@starcapture3040]

calendar origin is egyption not roman

[@adamst.martin1932]

October 4, 2022 The reason why there are NO thirteenth...13th in months because all Christians believes number 13th is UNlucky number.. That's why there is NO thirteen in months

[@Zeyede_Seyum]

Their is in Ethiopian orthodox Tewahido calendar which is also the national calendar. Its Called Pagume (ጳጉሜ)

[@yasamanrezvani8469]

No, they don't come from Romans. Definitely not. They come from a much older civilization!

[@unapologeticgreatgrandma1720]

You have Togo back further

[@valmarsiglia]

Nobody learns a language in high school or college. At least not in the States.

[@reallyreal7630]

Where did the ENGLISH get their months name from. Because.. It has different names in different languages.

[@purebloodstevetungate5418]

The days of the week are all named after pagan gods just like the months.

[@Zeyede_Seyum]

መስከረም ጥቅምት ሕዳር ታሕሳስ ጥር የካቲት መጋቢት ሚያዝያ ግንቦት ሰኔ ሐምሌ ነሐሴ ጳጉሜ

[@valiantredneck]

Wow! Only took too 00:58 second’s to lose all interest in this channel. If a channel shove’s a filthy commercial in my face then that channel can piss off.

[@alvinomar6]

Babbel ? Really?