英文的八月不是八，十二月原來是十，關於月份的英文由來，看完這篇就是比別人懂。

gif via Giphy

相信很多人都聽過英文月份的由來，比方說OCTober裡的OCT means eight 其實有八的意思，英文的10月，當然也沒有10的意思，OCT所代表的是數字8。背過英文字根字首的人都曉得，如octopus是八爪魚，octagon是八角形。

八月的英文之所以是August，其實是為了紀念羅馬奧古斯都大帝Augustus。九月的SEPTember ，sept其實也沒有9的意思，sept在法文中是7的意思，至於NOVember ，其實真正的意思是9 ，因為nov在法文中對應的字是neuf，也就是法文9的意思。以此類推，DECember 也不是12囉，因為它代表的意思是10。

這到底是怎麼回事啊？

原來古早時，一年只有十個月，而非十二個月，古早時候每一年其實是從三月開始算起，一二月是後來才加上去的，原因為何已經不可考。

下面的這篇文章有很多關於月份的英文介紹。

Though February is the shortest month of the year, it often feels like the longest in cold, snowy climates. Why does the month have only 28 days? 

First here’s a little history of our calendar. The original Roman calendar only had ten months, because the winter was not demarcated被區隔. In the 700s BC, the second king of Rome Numa Pompilius added January and February to the end of the calendar in order to conform to為求一致 how long it actually takes the Earth to go around the Sun. The two new months were both originally 28 days long. It is lost to history why January acquired more days, though there are various unverifiable hypotheses無法被證實的假設. At that time, March 1 became New Years’ Day. Later, in 153 BC, the beginning of the year was moved to January 1.

The word February comes from the Roman festival of purification清淨之月(古羅馬每年的二月十五日都會舉行淨身儀式，所以二月在當時也被稱之為淨身之月) called Februa where people were ritually washed. There is a Roman god called Februus, but he is named after the festival, not the other way around (Februa這個神的名字源自淨身之月，所以是節慶在先，後來以此命名神祇，而非反過來). Other months, like January, are named after Roman gods.

The interesting linguistic story語言學的故事, though, lies in England. Before we adopted the Latin name for the second month, Old English used much more vibrant生動/鮮活的 names to describe it. The most common Old English name was Solmonath, which literally means “mud month.” It is pretty clear what they were describing. A lesser-used term比較少使用的名詞 was Kale-monath, which meant “cabbage month.” We can imagine that the English were eating a lot of cabbage in February in the 1100s. 
所以冷冷的二月天，先民吃包心菜這一幕不難想像，畢竟冷天是包心菜產季啊。