Months
The following Etymologies, unless otherwise noted, are taken from Xavier Delamarre, Dictionnare de la langue gauloise, 2nd edition, Editions Errance, 2003.
Samonios - "Month Belonging of Summer". Likely an n-stem derivative (with a suffix of appurtenance, -io-) of the Common Celtic root *samo- "summer" found in Old Irish sam, Welsh haf. Cf. Old Irish Samain "(festival of the) First of November", "All-Hallows/All-Saints day" and Mithem, Mithemain "Mid-summer, month of June", Middle Welsh Meheuin "June" (both from Common Celtic *Medi-samVn -), as well as Old Irish Cétamuin "Month of May", "First of May", "May Day" (alternate name for Beltain), Welsh Cyntefin "month of May" (both from Common Celtic *kintu-samonis "beginning of Summer"). An alternate proposal is that the root of the name is Common-Celtic *sem- "one, same, together", making it the "Month of Assembly".
Duman(n)(ios) - "Month of (religious) Fumigation"? Cf. Latin fūmus "smoke", Sanskrit dhūmah "smoke", Greek θύμος (thūmos) "soul, life, passion; anger, wrath" (also θύμιάω "to burn, as incense", θύμα "sacrificial offering").
Riuros - "Thick/Fat/Large month"? Possibly cognate with Old Irish remor "stout, thick, fat", Welsh rhef "thick, stout, great, large" (in which case, the original form may have been *Remros, with later shift of -e- to -i- and lenition of internal -m-). Some scholars alternately suggest a connection with Old Irish réud, Welsh rhew "cold".
Anagantios - "Month in which One Does Not Travel", "Non-itinerant month?" Composed of a Common Celtic negative prefix *an- and a an agentive noun *agant- based on the root *ag- "to go, to conduct, to lead". Cf. Old Irish ag "to go, do, conduct", Welsh agit "goes".
Ogron(n)(i)(os) - "Cold Month". An n-stem derivative of the Common Celtic root *ougros "cold". Cf. Old Irish úar, Welsh oer. The root *oug- may be compared to Armenian oyc "cold", Lithanian auksts "cold", and Latin a(u)ctumnus "autumn".
Cutios - unknown etymology. Some have compared it to the obscure Greek month name Κοούτιος (Kooutios) in the Lokrian calendar from Chaleion (which may = October-November).
Giamonios "Month belonging to Winter". An n-stem derivative (suffix of appurtenance -io-) derived from the Common Celtic root *giįamo- "winter". Cf. Welsh gaeaf, Breton goañv, Old Irish gaim "winter", Gamain "month of November" (also, a "yearling calf" ).
Simiuisonna (or Semiuisonna) - unknown etymology. Perhaps Common Celtic *sēmi- "half" plus *ues- "Spring(time)" or a compound containing a feminine form of the word for "sun", *sonna (see Sonnocingos below).
Equos - etymology unknown. Some scholars have connected it with the word for "horse" in Celtic languages, Common Celtic *ekWos, Old Irish ech, Welsh eb- (found only in ebol "pony", compound words such as eb-rwydd "fast/quick/ready", eb-ran "fodder", and the place name Mynydd Epynt), but there is some disagreement over this, since one would expect the form to be *Epos in a P-Celtic language such as Gaulish, in which personal, divine and place names containing the P-Celtic form *epo- are widely attested (some scholars acknowledge this point, but propose that the Calendar may contain Q-Celtic dialectal features, or archaisms dating to a time before Proto-Celtic -kw- became -p- in Gaulish; yet the Calendar does display P-Celtic words such as prinni, pog-, and peti, which argues against this).
Elembiu - "Month belonging to the Deer". From the Proto-Indo-European root *elen-bho- "deer", which gave us English lamb and the Greek έλαφος (elaphos), Έλαφιον / Έλαφιος (Elaphion / Elaphios), "Month belonging to the Deer" (called Έλαφηβολιών "Month of the Deer-hunt" in the Attic Calendar, equivalent to March-April). An alternate form of the PIE root, *elen-, gave us Welsh elain and Old Irish elit, "doe, hind; young deer".
Aedrini(os) - Bright (or Hot) Month"; cf. Old Irish aed "fire", "heat", Greek αἰθήρ (aithēr) "bright sky, upper air, ether". Ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root *aidh- which also gave us Latin aestas "Summer".
Cantlos - perhaps "Song month"; cf. Welsh cathl "song", Breton keñtel "lesson", Old Irish cétal.
Read more about this topic: Coligny Calendar
Famous quotes containing the word months:
“I have stopped smoking now and then, for a few months at a time, but it was not on principle, it was only to show off; it was to pulverize those critics who said I was a slave to my habits and couldn’t break my bonds.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Reminiscences, even extensive ones, do not always amount to an autobiography.... For autobiography has to do with time, with sequence and what makes up the continuous flow of life. Here, I am talking of a space, of moments and discontinuities. For even if months and years appear here, it is in the form they have in the moment of recollection. This strange form—it may be called fleeting or eternal—is in neither case the stuff that life is made of.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)
“One of the joys our technological civilisation has lost is the excitement with which seasonal flowers and fruits were welcomed; the first daffodil, strawberry or cherry are now things of the past, along with their precious moment of arrival. Even the tangerine—now a satsuma or clementine—appears de-pipped months before Christmas.”
—Derek Jarman (b. 1942)