With November on the way, I decided to look into a question that has bothered me for some time: Why are the months out of sync with the numbers referenced by their Latin roots?
For November the Latin root of it refers to nine, just like October refers to eight and December to 10. So how did it end up as the 11th out of a dozen?
The most comprehensive answer to this puzzling question is to be found in an article posted last year on Live Science. One theory is that the original calendar had only 10 months, and so November was rightly placed as the penultimate month. The mismatch of name and placement only resulted from the addition of January and February to start out a calendar that had begun in March.
Another theory is that the Roman Empire did use a calendar of 12 months. However, while New Year’s Day was set for March, some places would start their year in January. While that may sound odd, the article points out that businesses frequently set their fiscal calendars to begin in a month other than January.
You can read through the whole article to decide which theory you find more compelling.
Related: http://uncommoncontent.blogspot.com/2013/04/happy-early-birthday-shakespeare.html
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