▪ I. month1
(mʌnθ)
Forms: 1 mónað, -oð, -eð, mónð, 3 monð, 2–5 moneð, 3 moneþþ(Orm.), 3–4 monþe, monthe, monet, 3–7 monethe, 4 munth, mooneþ, monyþ, mooneth, mounthe, 4–5 moneþe, 4–6 monyth, 4–7 moneth, 5 munethe, 5–6 monythe, 6 monneth, Sc. monecht, 3– month.
[Common Teut.: OE. mónað masc., = OFris. mônath, môn(a)d, masc., OS. mânoth masc. (in glosses: MLG. mânet, MDu. maent, Du. maand fem.), OHG. mânôa (MHG. mânôt. mod.G. monat) masc., ON. mánuð-r masc. (Sw. månad, Da. maaned), Goth. mēnōþ-s:—OTeut. *mǣnōþ-, related to *mǣnon- moon n.1
In the 16–17th c. the spelling moneth was almost universal.]
A measure of time corresponding to the period of revolution of the moon.
1. a. Any one of the twelve portions into which the conventional year is divided. (When not otherwise determined by the context, the reference is to the ‘months’ inherited by Western civilized nations from the Romans, and known by the names January, February, etc.) More explicitly calendar month, less commonly † calendary month, civil month, political month, usual month (for illustrations of these designations see under the adjs.).
The primitive calendar month of ancient nations began on the day of new moon or the day after, and thus coincided (except for fractions of a day) with the synodical month (see 2). Among many peoples of antiquity, however, it was from a very early period found desirable that the calendar year should contain an integral number of the smaller periods used in ordinary reckoning. Hence the true ‘months’ were superseded by a series of twelve periods each having a fixed number of days (on the average one-twelfth of the number in the calendar year), and thus having no relation to the changes of the moon; but this artificial period continued to bear the name of ‘month’. The systems according to which the reckoning by months was brought into relation with that by years were very various. In the Julian calendar, the months in leap year had alternately 31 and 30 days, while in other years February had only 29 instead of 30. This symmetrical arrangement was under Augustus broken up by the transference of a day from February to August, and of a day from September and November to October and December respectively, producing the system now in use.
| c 888 K. ælfred Boeth. v. §2 Þonne ðære sunnan scima on Agustes monðe hatost scinð ðonne dyseᵹað se ðe þonne wile hwelc sæd oðfæstan þæm dryᵹum furum. c 1000 ælfric Gen. vii. 11 On þam oðrum monðe on þone seofenteoðan dæᵹ þas monðes. a 1123 O.E. Chron. an. 1110 On þære fiftan nihte on Maies monðe. c 1205 Lay. 7220 He [Julius Cæsar] makede þane kalender þe dihteð þane moneð & þe ȝer. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 92 He was as fresh as is the month of May. 1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 1 In the moneth of Iuyll the said yere. 1535 Coverdale Exod. xiii. 4 This daye are ye gone out, euen in y⊇ moneth of Abib. 1615 Bedwell Arab. Trudg., Alkoran, This moneth they call Ramadhan, which also is their Lent. 1678 Sir G. Mackenzie Crim. Laws Scot. ii. iv. §1 (1699) 185 Registrat in the Books of Secret Council, the 15. day of that Moneth. 1681 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gen. (1693) 868 The Moneth of March. 1775 S. J. Pratt Liberal Opin. lxiv. (1783) II. 236 The arid month of July. 1794 Cruden Concord. (ed. 5) s.v. Month, The names and order of the months in the [Hebrew] Civil year are the same as in the preceding table, only beginning the year with Tisri or September. 1807 Robinson Archæol. Græca iii. xxv. 332 The Roman January, which was their first month, was in the depth of winter. The Macedonians reckoned Dius their first month from the autumnal equinox. 1861 M. Pattison Ess. (1889) I. 36 Dr. Pauli..more than once gives the day and the month, without remembering to add the year of an event. |
b. An emblematic representation of this.
| 1644 Evelyn Diary 7 Nov., The Temple of Janus quadrifrontis, having 4 arches importing the 4 Seasons, and on each side niches for the Monethes. 1712 Budgell Spect. No 425 ¶4 Then came up the three Months which belong to this season. Ibid., Then came the Attendant Months. |
2. Astr. a. (In full
lunar month.) The period in which the moon makes a complete revolution relatively to some point, either fixed or moveable.
There are thus several species of lunar month, as the time of the revolution is different according to the point with regard to which it is reckoned. Usually the term denotes the
synodical month,
i.e. the period from one new moon to the next, the length of which is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2·7 seconds. The other kinds of lunar month (the lengths of which are all between 27 and 28 days) are the
anomalistic,
sidereal,
tropical, and
nodical month: see those
adjs.| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 248 On ðam monðe synd ᵹetealde niᵹon & twentiᵹ daᵹa & twelf tida, þis is se monelica monað. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 145 Ðe mones liȝt is moneð met. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. ix. (1495) 354 The month of the mone is that space in the whyche the mone passyth from one poynt in the fyrmament and comyth ayen to the same..conteynyth xxvij dayes and viij houres. 1483 Cath. Angl. 246/2 A munethe, interlunium. 1551 Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 14 A Moneth is the iuste time of the propre course of the Moone, from chaunge to chaunge. 1715 tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 241 Tho' a Month be properly that space of time wherein the Moon goes thro' the Zodiac; yet [etc.]. 1875 Encycl. Brit. II. 800/1 We have as many different species of months as there are different motions with which that of the moon can be compared. Ibid. 800/2 The different lunar months. Synodical month, Sidereal month, Tropical month [etc.]. |
† b. month of apparition,
illuminative month: that part of the lunation during which the moon is actually visible. (The length of this was variously stated.)
Obs.| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xlvi. (1636) 360 The month of Apparition consisteth of eight and twenty daies. 1658 Phillips s.v., A moneth of Apparition, i. the space of 26 dayes and 12 hours, wherein the Moon appears, the other three days being deducted wherein it is obscured by the Sun. |
c. solar month: the twelfth part of the solar year; the time occupied by the sun in passing through one of the signs of the zodiac.
| c 1000 Sax. Leechd. III. 244 Ðære sunnan ᵹear is þæt heo beyrne þone miclan circul zodiacum... ælce monðe heo yrnð under an þæra tacna. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. ix. (1495) 354 The monthe of the sonne duryth as longe as the sonne abydyth in one sygne in his course. 1715 tr. Gregory's Astron. (1726) I. 241 That space of time..wherein the Sun runs thro' one Sign of the Zodiac, is call'd a Solar Month. |
3. a. A space of time, reckoned from any moment, and either (
a) extending to the corresponding day of the next calendar month (in which case the space of time is called ‘a calendar month’), or (
b) containing 28 days (often miscalled a ‘lunar month’).
| a 900 tr. Bæda's Hist. v. xvii. [xix.] (1890) 454 He þa fela monþa þær ᵹesæliᵹum ᵹ elesum ᵹeornlice abyseᵹad wæs. c 1000 ælfric Gen. xxix. 14 Ða an monuð aᵹan wæs. c 1205 Lay. 7771 Þreottene monðes wunede Julius in Oðeres. c 1250 Gen. & Ex. 2592 Ðre moneð haueð ȝhe him hid. c 1350 Will. Palerne 5074 Þe fest of þat mariage a moneþ fulle lasted. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. iii. 140 Heo may as muche do In a Mooneþ ones, As [ȝoure] secre seal In Seuen score dayes. c 1400 Mandeville (1839) v. 49 At the ende of 3 Wekes or of a Monethe, thei comen aȝen. 1481 Caxton Godeffroy cxxi. 183 The siege had thenne endured nygh ix. monethes. 1579 Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 46 A quicke vnderstanding, is able to attaine to more in a moment..then a dull and blockish head in a month. 1599 Acts Privy Council XXIX. 591 Allowance..at x.li. the monneth, accompting xxviij daies to the monethe, is yearlie cxxx.li. 1628 Coke On Litt. 135 b, A month mensis is regularly accounted in Law 28. dayes, and not according to the Solar moneth, nor according to the Kalender, vnlesse it bee for the account of the laps in a quare impedit. 1683 Tryon Way to Health 134 Which comes to pass in six, eight or twelve Moneths, more or less. 1747 W. Horsley Fool (1748) II. 248 The hurricane Months begin about the Twelfth of July, and continue to the Nineteenth of October. 1766 Blackstone Comm. II. ix. 141 A month in law is a lunar month, or twenty-eight days, unless otherwise expressed. 1842 J. Aiton Domest. Econ. (1857) 303 In Scotland, we are said to enjoy nine months of winter and three months of very bad weather. 1850 Act 13–14 Vict. c. 21 (An Act for shortening the Language used in Acts of Parliament) §4 The Word ‘Month’ to mean Calendar Month, unless words be added showing Lunar Month to be intended. 1886 Lucy Gladstone Parl. 372 That plank bed, every square inch of which is as well known in the House of Commons as if members had passed upon it a month of all-night sittings. |
b. sing. for pl. after a numeral.
Obs. exc. dial.| c 1175 Lamb. Hom. 3 Þe mon þe leie xii moneð in ane prisune. a 1225 Ancr. R. 218 Sum ancre is þet weneð þet heo schule beon stronglukest iuonded iðe uormeste tweolf moneð þet heo bigon ancre lif. a 1300 Cursor M. 11127 Mare þan thre monet duelld he In his aghen kindli contre. c 1300 Harrow. Hell 208 Twelue moneþ is agon, þat I þolede martirdom. c 1400 Destr. Troy 8373 Sex moneth & no more. c 1470 Henry Wallace iii. 334 Till x moneth war gayne. |
c. spec. One of the ‘nine months’ commonly accounted to make up the period of pregnancy in women (about 270–80 days). So
seven months' child, one born about 30 weeks after conception.
| c 950 Lindisf. Gosp. Luke i. 36 Ðis moneð [Rushw. MS. monoð] is ðe seista ðær ðiu ᵹe-ceiᵹed is un-berend. 1834 Cycl. Pract. Med. III. 471/2 Both mother and daughter..were in the habit of menstruating up to the seventh month. |
d. Used as an indefinite measure of time,
esp. in
pl., a long while.
| 1601 Shakes. All's Well iv. iii. 99, I haue to night dispatch'd sixteene businesses, a moneths length a peece. 1819 Shelley Cenci iii. i. 330 What you in one night squander were enough For months! 1891 Meredith One of our Conq. xxv, ‘Is there anything of Dartrey's wife?’ ‘Dead’, he answered. ‘When?’ ‘Months back’. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 455 Beriberi often originates in ships miles and months away from the land. |
e. ellipt. for a month's leave, duty, absence, etc.; also for the amount of wages corresponding to a month's service.
| 1787 C. Smith Romance Real Life I. 211 Here Beaulieu put the infant to nurse with Gabriella Niviniot, to whom he paid a month before-hand. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §330 The present third man, who was at this time taking his month on shore. |
f. Phrases.
† month about: during alternate months.
month by month: in each successive month (without suggestion of cessation).
month after month: each month as a sequel to the preceding (without suggestion of continuity).
from month to month: continuously from one month to the next.
from the month: from the period when the lying-in mother is left by the monthly nurse.
month of Sundays (
colloq.): an indefinitely prolonged period.
this day month: at a time a month after the day indicated.
| 1611 Bible 1 Chron. xxvii. 1 Nowe the children of Israel..which came in, and went out moneth by moneth, throughout all the moneths of the yeare. 1656 H. Phillips Purch. Patt. (1676) 89 Moneth by moneth, nay, day by day. 1668 Pepys Diary 11 Mar., About four o'clock the House rises, and hath put off the debate to this day month. 1749 Hist. Pelham, Mass. (1898) 224 Said Scole is to be Keept, Month about at each Plase. 1771 Goldsm. Hist. Eng. II. 74 Entrusted with the charge of guarding him month about. 1808 Times 26 Feb. 4/4 A Widow..[wants] to take the Care of a Child from the month. 1818 Shelley Marenghi xiii. 3 He hid himself, and hunger, toil, and cold, Month after month endured. 1832 Marryat N. Forster v, It may last a month of Sundays. 1864 Tennyson Aylmer's F. 488 So month by month the noise about their doors..made The nightly wirer of their innocent hare Falter before he took it. 1884 H. Collingwood Under Meteor Flag 269 Don't be a month of Sundays about it. 1894 Owen & Boulger (title) The Country Month by Month. |
† 4. Applied (as the name of the nearest recognized division of time) to certain measures of duration supposed to be important in particular sciences.
philosophical month (old
Chem.): see
quot. 1727–41.
medical month or
medicinal month,
decretory month or
decretorial month: the space of 26 days 22 hours, formerly supposed by physicians to represent the interval between the crises of disease.
Obs.| 1646 [see medical a. 1 d]. 1727–41 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Month, Philosophical Month, amongst chymists, is the space of 40 days and nights. |
† 5. pl. = menses.
Obs.| 1578 Lyte Dodoens ii lxxi. 241 The wilde Basill..stoppeth..the inordinate course of the Moneths. 1664 Pepys Diary 27 Sept., My wife having..her months upon her is gone to bed. 1694 Westmacott Script. Herb. 183 Saffron..expelleth the Months and Child. |
6. Attributive uses and combinations.
a. attrib., as
month-brother,
month-end;
month-old adj.;
month-long adj. and
adv.;
† month book, an account book intended to serve a month;
month clock, a clock which goes for a month between windings;
† month courses = menses;
† month-day, (
a) a stipulated or allowed period of a month's duration, chiefly in
phr. within a month day (
cf. day n. 11); (
b) the corresponding day of the following calendar month;
month-man dial. = month's man (see b);
month-name, the name of any one of the calendar months;
† month-nurse = monthly nurse.
| 1557 Order of Hospitalls F vj, You shall kepe xiij *Moneth-Books. Every Booke shall containe all your receipts and Paiments receued and paid in euery Moneth. |
| a 1889 G. M. Hopkins Poems (1967) 37 A sister, born for each strong *month-brother. |
| 1799 Times 1 June 4/4 Turkey carpets, a *month clock, a quantity of old china. 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockmaker's Handbk. 268 Month Clocks have an intermediate wheel and pinion between the great and centre wheels. 1962 E. Bruton Dict. Clocks & Watches plate 7 (caption) French month clock with skeleton frame. |
| 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 100 The same water drunk..doth stay the excesse of the *month courses. |
| 1390 Gower Conf. II. 27 He his trowthe leith to borwe To come, if that he live may, Ayein withinne a *Monthe day. Ibid. 100 Withinne..tuo Monthe day. c 1440 Generydes 1890 To muster withynne a moneth day. c 1470 [see day n. 11]. 1546 Langley Pol. Verg. De Invent. v. iv. 103 b, Thei vse commonly not to be purified afore the moneth day. |
| 1929 Times 30 Oct. 14/2 The corporations would..withdraw funds from the call money market to meet their *month-end requirements. |
| 1843 Pusey Serm. Holy Euch. 28 All but a *month-long fast from our ‘daily Bread’. 1887 Morris Odyss. x. 14 And me month-long there he cherished. |
| 1794 Annals of Agric. XXII. 212 Harvest-men, (month-men) 4l. per month. |
| 1906 Athenæum 8 Sept. 280/3 The old dislike of Quakers to the ordinary *month-names. |
| 1828 Lights & Shades II. 312, I was boxed up with a market-gardener, a *month-nurse [etc.]. |
| 1909 R. Brooke Let. Jan. (1968) 155 On Thursday..I go..to our filthy academy in the Fens..(by a *month-old engagement) with a pack of women. 1940 W. Faulkner Hamlet iv. 292 The month-old corn-silk beard which concealed most of his abraded face. 1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 1 Mar. 150/3 Day-old pullets..chicks as hatched..month-old pullets. |
b. Possessive genitive, as
† month's day = month day (see a); also
= month's mind;
month's end dial., a religious celebration held after the expiration of a month from the date of a funeral (
cf. month's mind);
month's man, a man employed at enhanced wages for one month's labour during harvest.
| c 1526 Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 226 As I understand, ye are contented to bide the order of me & others,..so that an end wear maid before *months day next. 1542 in Suss. Arch. Coll. (1869) XXI. 201 [Will of T. Delve: At his burial x masses... At his month's day a cast of bread, two pounds of beef, and a penny]. |
| 1863 Monthly Packet Dec. 683 In many a parish, the only occasions on which the church is well filled is when one of these ‘*Month's Ends’ (as they are called, whatever time may have elapsed since the funeral) gathers together a train of mourners. |
| 1750 W. Ellis Mod. Husbandm. V. ii. 8 He commonly employed six *Months-Men every Harvest. 1804 C. Smith Conversations, etc. I. 191 But what is a monthsman?.. One who is hired by the farmer, to work for him for a month, during harvest. |
▪ II. month2 Obs. exc. Hist. (
mʌnθ)
Also 5
monthe, 5, 9
Hist. mounth.
[ad. Gael. monadh until 13th c. pronounced (monað).
Cf. place-names such as
Month Blair.]
A high hill, mountain. Applied
spec. to the Grampians,
esp. towards their eastern extremity (Jamieson).
| 1375 Barbour Bruce ii. 494 Dreand in the month thar pyne. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. vii. v. 634 Þe bak þai turnyt richt son, and flede, And oure þe Monthe richt son þaim spede. c 1470 Harding Chron. (1543) 236 Betwixt the mounthes and the water of Tay, Which some do call mountaignes in our language. 1520 Sc. Acts Parl. (1814) I. 201 All kynd of monthis..hes mercheis thre, Heidrowm, watter, and monthis bord. 1561 Reg. Privy Council Scot. I. 193 The benefices on this syde of the Month..and beyond the Month. c 1600 Battell of Balrinness in Scot. Poems 16th C. (1801) II. 347 On Towie Mounth I mett a man. 1640 in Rose of Kilravock (Spalding Club) 333 [Twelve tenants of the] Twa Culmores were peacefully leading peats..from the Month of Mulbuy. |