Calends

The calends (Latin Kalendae , - arum, F pl), or kalendes , corresponded to the first day of each month in the Roman Calendrier and was to correspond to a the New moon, the day of the official announcements.

This antiquated term would come from the Etruscan , which could explain the maintenance of the letter K in the writing of the dates, letter whose Romains had however quickly gotten rid with the profit of C (the rare Latin words in K are indeed often of foreign origin).

Another explanation gives a purely Latin origin: it would come from Latin “ calendae ”, “ which is called ” (verb “ calare ”, to call). The “Calendes” indicated among Romans the first day of the month, which corresponded about to the new moon in the first calendars (years of Romulus and Numa Pompilius). This day, the Pontife S announced the date of the movable feasts of the next month and the debtors were to pay their debts entered in the “calendaria”, accounts books.

To return honor to the god Mars, one 10 feastdays week (named the Calends of Mars) was organized at the end of the year until the day known as (this duration is reduced to 8 days later).

This word is at the origin of several terms and expressions used in French:

  • the Calendrier
  • the derived adjective “ calendarium” (“which relates to the kalendes”) indicated a register of accounts (which one audited the first of the month; the calendarium was properly the “register of the expiries”) and, therefore, the Calendrier is the register on which one notes the events related to an exact date of the month. The French word comes directly from the Latin adjective, with a more general direction;
  • to return to the Greek calendars ( AD kalendas graecas ) means “indefinitely to push back the realization of an action”. Indeed, the Greek not having never had calends, the expression refers to an unknown date, which thus amounts “returning to the Saint Glinglin”.

See too

  • Colinde

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