different between calends vs nones

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

Etymology 1

From Latin n?nus (“ninth”).

As a day of the Roman calendar, via n?nae (“ninth days”) from the original Roman practice of counting forward to the next full or new crescent moon, the nones' occurrence 8 days before the ides of every month (9 counting inclusively) following the establishment of a fixed calendar, and from the Latin practice of treating most recurring calendrical days as plurals. Some scholars believe the name is a variant of the nundines (n?ndinae f?riae (“ninth-day festival”)), the Roman market days held every eight days (9 counting inclusively), which were likely announced for each coming month by the Roman kings on the first-quarter days.

As a time of day, via the plural form of Middle English, Anglo-Norman, & French none and Latin n?na (“ninth hour”) after the manner of earlier matins, vespers, etc. As a meal, from the time of day, whether from its plural, genitive, or the occasional adverbial sense of -s.

Alternative forms

• (Roman date): Nones, Non.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /n??nz/
• Rhymes: -??nz

Noun

nones (plural nones)

1. (historical, often capitalized) The notional first-quarter day of a Roman month, occurring on the 7th day of the four original 31-day months (March, May, Quintilis or July, and October) and on the 5th 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.

   • 14th century, John Trevisa trans. Bartholomaeus Anglicus's De Proprietatibus Rerum, folio 119:

     Þe caniculer dayes biginnyth in þe fiftenþe kalendis of august and endiþ in þe nonis of septembris, and so þey ben euene fifty as it is seide þere.

     The canicular days begin on the fifteenth kalends of August [i.e., July 18th] and end on the nones [i.e., 5th] of September, and so they are even fifty as it is said there.

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

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

   • 2011, Robert A. Kaster trans. Macrobius, Saturnalia, Book I, Chapter xiii, Section 18:

     As for the Nones, it was thought that the multitudes should avoid mass meetings then because after the kings were expelled, the Roman people particularly celebrated what they took to be Servius Tullius's birthday: because crowds notoriously thronged all the Nones—it being well-known that Servius was born on the Nones, though the exact month was uncertain—those in charge of the calendar were afraid that if the whole population gathered on a market day it might start to revolt out of yearning for the king, and so they took the precaution of keeping the Nones and market days distinct.

   • 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.

   Coordinate terms: calends, ides

2. (historical, sometimes capitalized) The ninth hour after dawn (about 3 pm).
   • 1709, John Johnson, The Clergy-Man's Vade Mecum, Pt. II, p. 101:

     ...the same Liturgy of prayers be used both at Nones and Vespers.
     [With the note:] Nones was what we call three o'clock in the afternoon.

   • 1805, Robert Southey, Madoc, Vol. I, xiii, 134:

     From noon till nones
     The brethren sate.

   Synonyms: none, (obsolete) noon

   Hypernyms: canonical hours, tide, stound

3. (Christian) The divine office appointed to the hour.

   Synonym: none

   Hypernym: canonical hours

4. (obsolete) Alternative form of noon: the sixth hour after dawn; midday (12 pm).
5. (obsolete) Synonym of lunch: a meal eaten around noon.
   • c. 1400, William Langland, The Vision of William Concerning Piers the Plowman (Laud MS 581), v. 378:

     I... ouer-seye me at my sopere and some tyme at nones.

Usage notes

English use of the Roman calendrical term always employs the Romans' inclusive dating, including the nones itself when counting. Thus, the "third day before the nones of March" (a.d. iii Non. Mart.) is March 5th: two days before March 7th, not three.

English usage also often follows the Latin contraction of the phrasing, which omits the words ante diem. March 5th may appear as the "third nones of March" or the "third of the nones of March". Thus, the "second nones" (pr?di? n?n?s) is the 6th day of the old long months and the 4th day of the other months; the "third nones" (tertia n?n?s) is the day before that; and the "fourth nones" is the day before that. The day before the fourth nones of the old short months is their calends, whereas the four old long months have a "fifth" and "sixth nones" as well.

Synonyms

• (sixth hour of daylight): midday, noon, noontide; see also Thesaurus:midday

Translations

Etymology 2

See Nones.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, US) IPA^(key): /n?nz/
• Rhymes: -?nz

Noun

nones pl

1. Alternative form of Nones: atheists or those without religious affiliation.

References

Anagrams

• neons, onsen, sonne

Old French

Noun

nones f pl

1. nominative plural of none

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?nones/, [?no.nes]

Adverb

nones

1. absolutely not; no way