December: the twelfth and final month of the year

December comes from the same root word that gives us the English decade (a period of ten years), decennial (occurring every ten years), decimal (to the tenth place), and dime (ten cents).

December means: the tenth month.

Once upon a time, the Roman calendar began in the spring, with the month of March.  March, by the way gets its name from Mars, the Roman god of war.  With March as the first month of the year, December was the tenth month of the year.  One of the early Roman kings revised the calendar (or his administration did) and moved the new year back to January.  January gets its name from Janus, the Roman god of doors, beginnings, and endings.  In the old calendar, December was the tenth month.  With things rearranged by the king, December became the twelfth month.  I suppose it was just too much work to change the names.

September, from the Latin word for seven (septem) became the ninth month.  October, from the Latin word for eight (octo) became the tenth month.  November, from the Latin word for nine (novem) became the eleventh month.  And, December, the tenth month, became the twelfth month.

The lesson here is this.  If you are a Roman emperor, slow down on the eggnog.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Almost every Saturday, I send out a Tip of the Week.  The tip of the week is usually something I have picked up along the way that may make your life a little easier.  If you would like to hear from me (almost) every Saturday, just go to the home page of my site and plug in your name and email.   You will also get a free digital copy of my book on learning Latin (and almost anything else).  Just go here: https://dwanethomas.com/

If you want to buy the digital book instead (because you just feel like buying me a cup of coffee) go here: https://dwanethomas.gumroad.com/l/fzixlh

If you are interested in learning Latin, you can go through the classes on my site 24/7.  I recommend the book Lingua Latina by Hans Ørberg.  If you tackle the book and find yourself bogged down, you may find the classes on my site helpful.  To join, just click here: https://dwanethomas.com/join/

If you want a more professionally filmed experience, check out the best-selling DVD series: Visual Latin.

Or, if you want to skip Latin, and just jump right into learning English words from Latin and Greek roots, you may enjoy the series Word Up!  Warning.   Word Up! is a bit wacky.  You will learn a lot… but, you may find yourself rolling your eyes, too.
I teach other languages on my site, too.  The current schedule is here: https://dwanethomas.com/live-classes/

By the way, some of the links in this post are affiliate links. Not trying to pull a fast one on you. I only promote what I believe in. Not only that, but commissions from affiliate links allow me to continue offering training and books at low prices and sometimes free.