February is my birthday month (also my daughter’s), so it’s special to me, even though it’s dark and cold, and I’m usually ready for it to end way before the 28th. It’s a curious month, unusually short and unusually spelled (what is that extra “r” doing in there?), and this year I’ve decided to get to the bottom of why February is so unique.
Get ready for a little ancient Roman history…
Even though English started as a Germanic language in western Europe, the invasions and mingling that went on over the centuries introduced Latin based vocabulary and spelling, as well as Latin/ Roman customs. Our “February” comes from the Roman month Februarious, named for the festival of februum, a Roman purification ritual held on February 15. The “r” after the “b” in februum made its way into our modern spelling, although most people today do not pronounce the extra “r”.
Why is February so short? (Like me? ;)) Originally, the ancient Romans used a 10 month calendar that went from March to December. The winter months didn’t mean much in a society based on agriculture, so they didn’t bother keeping track of the days in winter, after December. Finally, in 713 BCE, King Numa Pompilius decided to line up the calendar with the 12 lunar cycles of the year (about 355 days), and he added January and February to the end of the calendar.
But there was still a problem. The ancient Romans, a superstitious lot, thought even numbers were bad luck. So King Pompilius made all of the months an odd number of days long. But 12 months of odd days added up to an even number of days for the year, and he couldn’t have that. So, he decided to make the last month of the year, February, the “unlucky” month of even days, and therefore he kept it short.
That calendar worked for awhile, but the months and seasons fell out of sync, and an adjustment “leap month” had to be added every now and again. People in power abused this flexible calendar by adding days to extend the political terms of friends and subtracting days to foil their enemies.
When Julius Caesar came to power in 46 B.C., he made more adjustments to the calendar, basing it on the sun, not the moon, and adding a few days to months so one year = 365 days. February moved to the beginning of the year, but retained its short length (except on leap years, when one day is added to February). Caesar’s changes stuck, and the calendar we use today is based on a modified Julian calendar. In 1582, Pope Gregory added leap years to keep the number of days in one year more in line with the length of a solar year, so technically, we use a “Gregorian calendar”.
If you want to learn more about February, visit:
If you like learning about words, visit Kathy at Bermuda Onion for her Wondrous Words Wednesday meme. Bloggers share favorites or new words they’ve learned.
What’s another unusual calendar term that you’d like to know more about? Like, what’s going on with that “n” in Wednesday?
Thanks for getting nerdy with me!
That was so interesting, Julia! I do love getting word-nerdy with you.
And now about one-third of English words come from Latin! I wish I’d taken more than that one compulsory year of it in high school, but alas . . .
I’ve always thought your headshot makes you look tall, for some reason. š
Yes, I wish I took any Latin- I think it would be fascinating! Iām glad my head shot fooled you- Iām 5ā2ā. š
Wow, the things I never knew. Fascinating! Thanks for the history lesson š
You are welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
Who knew there was so much history with the calendar? I loved learning about February’s origin. By the way, my 92 year old mother had to take a lot of elocution classes when she was growing up and she pronounces that “r” in February and the “d” in Wednesday.
Iām glad you enjoyed it, Kathy. Interesting on the elocution. Thanks for sharing!
Interesting as ever.
Thanks Bill!