It’s been seven months since the
last installation of this, all so I could do this in October. It’s not even really
that spooky. Well, maybe if you’re spooked by the tenth month being named for
the number eight. That’s always bothered me. But is probably not relevant.
The word October came about in the
eleventh century,
so it’s pretty old. It comes from the classical Latin October mensis, eighth month,
because back then the Romans had the New Year in March so October really used
to be the eighth month. Octo- of course means eight,
and the -ber is thought to come from -bris, a suffix.
But like many of these month names, October
wasn’t always October. It replaced the Old English winterfylleรพ
(pronounced win-ter-fyl-eth), which refers to the winter full moon because the Anglo Saxons considered October the beginning of winter. These days,
Winterfylleth is better known as a black metal band from England. So its legacy lives on.
Sources
Tony Jebson’s
page on the Origins of
Old English
