Giveaway Winner!
Thanks to everyone who stopped by during Banned Book Week to read my posts and comment on expurgated and The Kite Runner. What wonderful discussion! I enjoyed hearing from so many readers who share my belief in the value of books, even books with “content”.
Congratulations to Jennifer Brown of thebookienook; she won the Banned Book Week giveaway! Jennifer, pick a book from the giveaway list, and I will ship it to you. Please email me with your information so I can send you a great book ASAP.
Word Nerd Note: October
My word nerdy friend Crystal noted that it’s strange that October is the tenth month of the year, since “Oct” means “eight” in Latin. (think octagon, octogenarian, etc) Of course, I had to research the issue.
If you want more details, feel free to visit Wikipedia and read the history of our current calendar. You will find endless paragraphs about lunar years, solar years, and the shifting date of the vernal equinox- stuff to make your eyes glaze over and your head ache.
Let me hit the high points:
- The first calendar established by the Romans had 12 months but started in March. This would make October the 8th month, September the 7th, etc.
- Sometime during the Roman Empire, officials decided to start the year in January, because the God Janus faced both ways (ie looking back, looking forward).
- Roman rulers changed the fifth month to July to honor Julius Caesar and the sixth month to August to honor Caesar Augustus.
- The Roman Calendar was changed to the Julian calendar (when Julius Caesar initiated reforms) and then the Gregorian calendar in 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII instituted reforms. Our current calendar is the Gregorian calendar.
- The reforms had a lot to to with making the length of the year consistent and keeping the date of the feast of Easter from shifting too much. That’s a huge oversimplification, but again, if you want details, read for yourself. (And if you do, you’re either a bigger word nerd than me, or you just have way too much time on your hands.)
Word Nerd Workout
I dare you to bring up this topic in casual conversation.
“Hey, does anybody know why October is the tenth month of the year? It should be the eighth.”
Let me know what happens!
Other Word Nerdy Notes:
Julia
Thanks For The Fun Facts!
You are welcome! Thanks for stopping by!
October and August mess me up when I’m trying to write the date as all numbers. I want to write October as 8 and then I get a weird dyslexia and start wanting to write August as 10.
I can always count on you to get to the bottom of things. I wonder why I’ve never wondered about October before?
~Debbie
Everyone, thanks for stopping by! Glad my word nerd tendencies can be helpful. My husband read the post and asked, “Well, what does March mean, since it was the first month originally? And April…?” I said, “Check Wikipedia.” I got “No thanks.” 🙂
And now we know, indeed. I’ve always wondered! So glad you are a nerd word and give us the simplified versions of such things I will never research 🙂
I love this post, Julia! I know about the Julian and Gregorian calendars (programmer nerdiness, don’t ask) and you gave a great explanation! Yes, STIMULATING small talk for your next cocktail party 😉
Yeah, I guess I must have a pretty serious case of word nerdiness, too. That’s exactly the kind of stuff I research. And I get all excited at some of the answers, too. (My husband thinks I’m nuts.)
Wow, I never thought about that before. Thanks for the fun facts!
I have often wondered the same question Julia (about October). Thanks for explaining this to me. I actually think my boys had a question about that at school recently, but I didn’t know or take the time to research. Very interesting to read the history on things. I will share this with them for sure. 😉
Thanks so much,
Bless you, Hester 😉
Thanks, Julia!
And now we know…