Calendar

Months of the Year

April n
[ME April, Averil, Aperil, fr. L Aprilis, perh. fr. Gk Aphro, short for Aphrodite] : the fourth month of the Gregorian calendar

January n
[ME Januarie, fr. L Januarius, 1st month of Roman year, fr. Janus the two-faced god of beginnings] : the first month of our calendar year

March n
[ME, fr. OF, fr. L martius of Mars, fr. Mars the Roman war god] : the third month of our calendar year

May n
[ME, fr. OE & L; OF mai, fr. L Maius, fr. Maia Maia, mother of Hermes] : the fifth month of our calendar year

Days of the Week

Friday n
[ME, fr. OE frigedaeg, fr. (assumed) Frig Frigga + daeg day, prehistoric trans. of L dies Veneris Venus' day] : the sixth day of the week, following Thursday

Saturday n
[fr. L Saturnus Saturn, ancient Roman god of agriculture and father of Jupiter] : the seventh day of the week, following Friday

Thursday n
[ME; OE Thursdaeg, fr. ODan Thursdagr, lit. Thor's day, fr. D donderdag, fr. G Donnerstag; trans. of LL dies Jovis Jove's day] : the fifth day of the week, following Wednesday

Tuesday n
[ME tewesday, OE tiwesdaeg, orig., phrase Tiwes daeg Tiw's day, translating L dies Martis day of Mars] : the third day of the week, following Monday

Wednesday n
[ME Wednesdai, OE Wednesdaeg, mutated var. of Wodnesdaeg Woden's day; cognate of D Woensdag, Dan onsdag; trans. of L Mercurii dies day of Mercury] : the fourth day of the week, following Tuesday

Times of the Day

Halcyon Days n
[fr. Gk Alkyone, corres. to the fourteen windless days in the legend] : the seven days before and after the winter solstice

night n
[ME, fr. OE niht, L noct-, nox, Gk nykt-, nyx night; assoc. with the Greek god of night, Nyx] : the time from dusk til dawn when no sun is visible

vesper n
[late ME, fr. L evening (star), esp. Hesper, fr. Hesperos, Greek god of evening] : eveningtide

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Notes on Textual Abbreviations

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An Etymological Dictionary of Classical Mythology by Elizabeth W. Kraemer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Last updated 1/13/14