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:
“The seasons change their manners, as the year
Had found some months asleep and leapt them over.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Do not human beings have a hard service on earth, and are not their days like the days of a laborer? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like laborers who look for their wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 7:1-3.
“I hate housework! You make the beds, you do the dishes—and six months later you have to start all over again.”
—Joan Rivers (b. 1935)