different between calends vs ides

English

Etymology

From Middle English calendes, calendas, calendis, kalandes, kalendas, kalendes, kalendez, kalendis, kalendus (also in the singular forms calende, kalend, kalende), from Latin kalend?s, accusative plural of kalendae (“first day of a Roman month”), an archaic variant of calandae, from calandus (“which is to be called or announced solemnly”), the future passive participle of cal? (“to call, announce solemnly”) (referring to the Roman practice of proclaiming the first days of the lunar month upon seeing the first signs of a new crescent moon), from Proto-Indo-European *kelh?- (“to call, cry, summon”). Although the singular form calend (now obsolete, rare) appeared in English (and compare Old English calend, kalendus (“calends; a month”)), no singular form was used in Latin as recurring days of the calendar were always referred to in the plural.

Sense 2 (“a day for settling debts and other accounts”) refers to the Roman practice of fixing the calends as the day for debts to be paid.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?kæl?ndz/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?kæl?ndz/
• Hyphenation: ca?lends

Noun

calends pl (plural only)

1. Often with initial capital: the first day of a month

   Synonyms: Kal., (rare) first calends

   1. (historical, Ancient Rome) the first day of a month of the Roman calendar.
2. (by extension) A day for settling debts and other accounts.
3. (by extension, biblical, Judaism, obsolete) Synonym of Rosh Hodesh (“the Jewish festival of the new moon, which begins the months of the Hebrew calendar”)
4. (rare) Synonym of calendar; (figuratively) an account, a record.
5. (figuratively, obsolete) The first day of something; a beginning.

Usage notes

English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans’ inclusive dating, including the calends itself when counting. Thus, the “third day before the calends of January” (a.d. iii Kal. Ian.) is 30 December: two days before 1 January, not three.

English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem. The 30th of December may appear as the “third calends of January” or the “third of the calends of January”. Thus, the “second calends” (pridie kalendas) of a month is the last day of the month before it; the “third calends” (tertia kalendas) is the day before that; and so on. Because Julius Caesar did not want to move the religious holidays set by nones and ides of the months, he inserted all the additional days of his calendar reform in various places before the calends of the months. The Roman leap day was similarly intercalated as a “second sixth calends” on 25 February in order to avoid affecting the existing holidays of that month.

The variant spelling kalends is more common in modern classical scholarship, reflecting the Roman preference for that spelling.

Alternative forms

• Calends
• calend (obsolete, rare)
• kalends

Coordinate terms

• ides
• nones

Derived terms

• calends of exchange
• Greek calends

Related terms

Translations

Noun

calends

1. (obsolete, rare) plural of calend

References

Further reading

• calends on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• candles, slanced

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a?dz/
• Rhymes: -a?dz

Etymology 1

From Anglo-Norman and French ides, from Latin ?d?s, a fourth-declension plurale tantum, from the Latin practice of treating most recurring calendrical days as plurals. The Latin term is cognate with Oscan eiduis, both perhaps deriving from an unknown Etruscan term. Middle English and Old French also used the singular form ide.

Alternative forms

• Id., Ides

Noun

ides (plural ides)

1. (historical, often capitalized) The notional full-moon day of a Roman month, occurring on the 15th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 13th day of all other months.
   • 10th century, Byrhtferð of Ramsey, Enchiridion (Ashmolean MS 328), Book I, Chapter ii, Section 22:

     Þa monðas þe habbað iiii nonas æfter kalendas... habbað to idus xiii dagas and to ii kalendas eahtatyne.

     Those months that have 4 nones after the kalends... have 13 days to the ides and eighteen to the second kalends.

   • 1679, J. Moxon, Mathematics made Easie, p. 26:

     The Roman Month its several days divides
     By reckoning backwards, Calends, Nones, and Ides.

   • 1967, Agnes Kirsopp Michels, Calendar of the Roman Republic, p. 22:

     For the modern reader of Latin the most irritating pecularity of this system of dating is that the days after the Ides of any month carry the name of the following month... Another trap for the unwary lies in the fact that the Roman calendars given in most reference books are Julian, not pre-Julian. When Caesar added ten days to the Roman year he put them near the ends of the seven 29-day months, one or two in each. As a result, instead of the day after the Ides of all months being a.d. XVII Kal., in these seven months it is either a.d. XVIII Kal. or a.d. XIX Kal., and all the following days change correspondingly.

   • 2011, Robert A. Kaster trans. Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book I, Chapter xiv, Section 8:

     [March, May, Quintilis, and October] also have their Nones on the seventh, as Numa ordained, because Julius changed nothing about them. As for January, Sextilis, and December, they still have their Nones on the fifth, though they began to have thirty-one days after Caesar added two days to each, and it is nineteen days from their Ides to the following Kalends, because in adding the two days Caesar did not want to insert them before either the Nones or the Ides, lest an unprecedented postponement mar religious observance associated with the Nones or Ides themselves, which have a fixed date.

   The third day before the ides of March is March 13th; the third ides of August is August 11th; and the third of the ides of November is November 11th.

Usage notes

English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans' inclusive dating, including the ides itself when counting. Thus, the "third day before the ides of March" (a.d. iii Id. Mart.) is March 13th: two days before March 15th, not three.

English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem. March 13th may appear as the "third ides of March" or the "third of the ides of March". Thus, the "second ides" (pridie idus) is the 14th day of the old long months and the 12th day of the other months; the "third ides" (tertia idus) is the day before that; the "fourth ides" is the day before that; and so on until the "eighth ides", which is preceded by the nones in every month.

Coordinate terms

• calends, nones

Derived terms

• ides of April

Translations

Etymology 2

See ide.

Noun

ides

1. plural of ide

References

Anagrams

• -side, Desi, Dies, EIDs, Eids, IEDs, SEID, Side, deis, desi, dies, eids, side, sied

Galician

Verb

ides

1. second-person plural present indicative of ir

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *idis (“woman”), potentially from Proto-Indo-European *h?id?-és- (“fire, flame, burning”). Cognate with Old Saxon idis and Old High German itis. According to Jacob Grimm it is also cognate with Old Norse dís but this is heavily debated.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?i.des/

Noun

ides f

1. (poetic) virgin, lady, woman, queen

Declension

Portuguese

Verb

ides

1. Second-person plural (vós) present indicative of ir