|
Home
|
Aug 13, 2007
This week's themeWords related to calendar This week's words ides intercalary bissextile greek calends menology A.Word.A.Day on your site Add the daily word to your web page. It is free. 
A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg"Beware the Ides of March", the soothsayer warned Julius Caesar. Caesar didn't heed the warning and we all know his fate. At least that is what history tells us. I've a feeling Caesar did mind the date but he simply got lost in the hopelessly complex Roman calendar and confused the D-day. Ides are only one of the ingredients of the Roman calendar. The other two are calends (or kalends) and nones. The calends are straightforward -- they always fall on the first of every month. Nones on the fifth or the seventh, and ides on the thirteenth or the fifteenth. All dates are counted backwards from the nearest nones, calends, or ides. Here's a little rhyme to help you remember the dates:
March, July, October, and May More words about calendar this week. Interestingly, the word calendar derives from Latin calendarium (account book) since it was used to keep track of the date when debts were due. ides(eyedz)
 noun: The 15th day of March, May, July, or October, and the 13th day of the other months in the ancient Roman calendar. [From Old French, from Latin idus.]
"No need to beware the ides of June. Good news on the inflation front
fueled a Wall Street rally for the second consecutive day on Friday." See more usage examples of ides in Vocabulary.com's dictionary. X-BonusWho is more to be pitied, a writer bound and gagged by policemen or one living in perfect freedom who has nothing more to say? -Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., novelist (1922-2007) |
|
Awards | Stats | Links | Privacy Policy
Contribute | Advertise
© 1994-2024 Wordsmith