calends
nounUK /ˈkæləndz/ · US /ˈkælɪndz/
Etymology
From Middle English calendes, calendas, calendis, kalandes, kalendas, kalendes, kalendez, kalendis, kalendus (also in the singular forms calende, kalend, kalende), from Latin kalendās, 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 calō (“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 *kelh₁- (“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.
Often with initial capital: the first day of a month.
- The third day before the calends of February is 30 January, the third calends of March is 27 or 28 February, and the third of the calends of May is 29 April.
- The Roman Month its ſeveral days divides / By reckoning backwards, Calends, Nones, and Ides.1679, Joseph Moxon, “Calends”, in Mathematicks Made Easie: Or, A Mathematical Dictionary, Explaining the Terms of Art, and Difficult Phrases Used in Arithmetick, Geometry, Astronomy, Astrology, and Other Mathematical Sciences. […], London: Printed for Joseph Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 26:
4 more examples
- Now by the ſame Rule, if there was a very Ancient Folkmote in the Neighbouring Kingdom of France upon every Kalends of May, then perhaps King Arthur borrowed from them; and it is good to look upon our Kalends, becauſe it is poſſible they may give Light to Ours.1694, Samuel Johnson, “Of the Kalends of May”, in An Essay Concerning Parliaments at a Certainty; or, The Kalends of May, 2nd edition, London: Printed for the author; to be sold by Richard Baldwin, →OCLC, page 30:
- The Poſt of ſwift-foot Time / Hath now at length begun / The Calends of our middle Age, / Our bloſſoms they are gone.1729, Richard Burton [pseudonym; Nathaniel Crouch], The Vanity of the Life of Man:
- The Romans did not, as we do, count the days of the month in a regular numerical succession, but reckoned them with reference to three principal points of time—the Calends, the Nones, and Ides. The first day of every month was entitled its Calends. […] The Calends were originally the day of the new moon, which received its name from the fact that on that day the Pontifex addressed the moon in presence of the people, in the words "Calo te, Jana Novella," "I call upon thee, new moon," which was repeated as many times as intimated to his hearers the number of days before the arrival of the Nones.1851, Henry T[homas] Riley, “Introduction. [On the Reckoning of Time among the Romans.]”, in Ovid, translated by Henry T. Riley, The Fasti, Tristia, Pontic Epstles, Ibis, and Halieuticon of Ovid. Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes, London: H[enry] G[eorge] Bohn, […], →OCLC, pages xiii–xiv:
- Let it not be lawful to use wicked observations of the calends, and to keep the gentiles' holy-days, nor to deck houses with bays or green boughs; for all this is an heathenish observation.1852, John Whitgift, “Of the Communion Book. Tract IX. The General Faults Examined wherewith the Public Service is Charged by T[homas] C[artwright]”, in John Ayre, editor, The Works of John Whitgift, D.D., […] The Second Portion, Containing the Defence of the Answer to the Admonition against the Reply of Thomas Cartwright: Tractates VII–X (Publications of the Parker Society; no. 48), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Printed at the University Press, →OCLC, chapter i, 8th division, page 447:
Ancient Rome, Historical The first day of a month of the Roman calendar.
Broadly A day for settling debts and other accounts.
- To expedite theſe knots were worthy a learned and memorable Synod; while our enemies expect to ſee the expectation of the Church tir'd out with dependencies and independencies how they will compound, and in what Calends.1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of England, with the Assembly”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
Biblical, Lifestyle, Religion Judaism, Broadly, Obsolete Synonym of Rosh Hodesh (“the Jewish festival of the new moon, which begins the months of the Hebrew calendar”).
- The feasts of the Israelites were the Sabbath; the first day of each month, called in our translations calends, or new-moon; the three great feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, instituted in memory of the three greatest blessings they received from God, […]1809, Claude Fleury, “Their Religion”, in Adam Clarke, transl., The Manners of the Ancient Israelites; […], 3rd edition, London: Sold by William Baynes, […]; J[oseph] Butterworth, […]; and T. Blanshard, […], →OCLC, page 147:
- חֹדֶשׁ m. […] the new moon, the day of the new moon, the calends of a lunar month which was a festival of the ancient Hebrews, Num[bers] 29:6; 1 Sam[uel] 20:5; 18:24; Ex[odus] 19:1, […]1846, [Wilhelm] Gesenius, “חֹדֶשׁ”, in Samuel Prideaux Tregelles, transl., Gesenius’s Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. Translated, with Additions and Corrections from the Author’s Thesaurus and Other Works, London: Samuel Bagster and Sons, […], →OCLC, page CCLXIII, column 1:
Rare Synonym of calendar; (figurative) an account, a record.
- [N]ow doth [John] Oldcastle shine: / Him for a Saint within your Kalends hold.1601, Jo[hn] Weever, The Mirror of Martyrs, or The Life and Death of that Thrice Valiant Captaine, and Most Godly Martyre Sir Iohn Old-castle Knight Lord Cobham, [London]: Printed by V[alentine] S[immes] for William Wood, →OCLC; republished in The Hystorie of the Most Noble Knight Plasidas, and Other Rare Pieces; Collected into One Book by Samuel Pepys, […], London: [Printed for the Roxburghe Club by] J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols and Sons, […], 1873, →OCLC, page 239:
Figuratively, Obsolete The first day of something; a beginning.
- Whoever shall sell a calf or a yearling, let him be answerable against the scab from the calends of winter until the Feast of Patrick.1909, A[rthur] W[ade] Wade-Evans, “English Translation of Harleian Ms. 4353 (V) with the Missing Leaves Supplied from Cleopatra A xiv (W)”, in Welsh Medieval Law: Being a Text of the Laws of Howel the Good: […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 220:
- Derived terms
- calends of exchange, Greek calends
- Related terms
- calendar, calendar day, calendar month, calendar year, calendrical, calendrically, uncalendared