View Single Post
Old 05-05-2013, 10:47 AM   #4
macele
Member

How Do You Identify?:
a bold-assed maximus
Preferred Pronoun?:
she
 

Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: mississippi
Posts: 1,066
Thanks: 3,178
Thanked 3,239 Times in 849 Posts
Rep Power: 21474849
macele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputationmacele Has the BEST Reputation
Default

December (n.)
c.1000, from Old French decembre, from Latin December, from decem "ten" (see ten); tenth month of the old Roman calendar, which began with March.

The -ber in four Latin month names is probably from -bris, an adjectival suffix. Tucker thinks that the first five months were named for their positions in the agricultural cycle, and "after the gathering in of the crops, the months were merely numbered."
If the word contains an element related to mensis, we must assume a *decemo-membris (from *-mensris). October must then be by analogy from a false division Sep-tem-ber &c. Perhaps, however, from *de-cem(o)-mr-is, i.e. "forming the tenth part or division," from *mer- ..., while October = *octuo-mr-is. [T.G. Tucker, "Etymological Dictionary of Latin"]
macele is offline   Reply With Quote
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to macele For This Useful Post: