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Webster 1913 Edition


Calends

Cal′ends

,
Noun.
pl.
[OE.
kalendes
month, calends, AS.
calend
month, fr. L.
calendae
; akin to
calare
to call, proclaim, Gr. [GREEK][GREEK][GREEK][GREEK][GREEK][GREEK]. CF.
Claim
.]
The first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar.
[Written also
kalends
.]
The Greek calends
,
a time that will never come, as the Greeks had no calends.

Webster 1828 Edition


Calends

CALENDS

,
Noun.
plu.
Among the Romans, the fist day of each month. The origin of this name is differently related. Varro supposes it to have originated in the practice of notifying the time of the new moon, by a priest who called out or proclaimed the fact, to the people, and the number of the calends, or the day of the nones. Others alledge that the people be convened, the pontifex proclaimed the several feasts or holidays in the month; a custom which was discontinued in the year of Rom 450, when the fasti or calendar was set up in public places, to give notice of the festivals.

Definition 2024


calends

calends

English

Alternative forms

Noun

calends

  1. the first day of a month.
    February contained only 28 days: it had four nones like January and eight ides like all the other months; its ides were upon the 13th day of the month; and consequently after the ides there would remain only 15 days in the month: the first of these, by an inclusive reckoning, was called the 16th of (or before) the calends of March. T. Rutherford, A System of Natural Philosophy
  2. the first day of a season.
    Whoever shall sell sheep, let him be answerable for three diseases (scab and rot and red water) until they receive their fill three times of the new grass in spring, if after the calends of winter he sells them. Arthur Wade-Evans, Welsh Medieval Law

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