Where do the names of the months in the calendar come from? What Are Its Origins?

January (January)
In English, the name of the month of January comes from the Roman God Janus, who faces one side to the right and the other to the left. Because January has two faces. One side symbolizes the end of the last year, while the other side represents the beginning of a new year. The Latin for January is Januarius mensis ("month of Janus"). The name of January in Turkish comes from the word "oven". The place where a fire is lit for cooking during the winter is called the "hearth" and January gets its name from here. However, it is possible to trace the history of the word "ocak" to Divan-ı Lugati't Türk, that is, to 1073. In this dictionary, the word "oçak" is given as the equivalent of the Arabic word "al-kānūn". As an interesting additional information, the month of December in Arabic is also known as "kanun-u aww": In other words, December means "before January".

February (February)
It is known as Februarius in Old English. The Romans held "purification festivals" on the 15th day of each February so that their empire could focus on a better life. In these festivals, all kinds of materials that would cleanse and purify their bodies were called februa. This comes from Februus, the god of purification in Ancient Rome. This is where the word "february" in English comes from. February came to Turkish from Syriac. Its origin is the word "sabbath". At the same time, febāṭ corresponds to the 11th month of the Rumi calendar, and şəbāṭ to the 11th and last month of the Syriac calendar. Sabbath; It means "day of rest". It is due to the fact that Anatolian Assyrians, who are an agricultural society, cannot carry out agricultural activities in February, the last month of winter, due to seasonal conditions, and they wait for the winter to end at home and rest. According to Nişanyan Dictionary, the origin of the word may also have been derived from the Akkadian word "şabāṭu", that is, "to hit, hit, knock down"; but its origin is uncertain.

March (March)
The pronunciation and meaning of the name of the month of March are similar in many languages. It is named März in German, Mars in French, Marzo in Spanish, and Maart in Dutch. The common origin of these words is Martius, the Roman God of War. The Latin for March is Martius mensis, meaning "Moon of Mars". Mars, on the other hand, comes from the change of the word Martius over time. Martius, on the other hand, is derived from the Archaic Latin word maurs or mavors, meaning "deadly".

April (April)
The month of April, whose Latin is Aprilis, takes its meaning from the Latin word "aperire" (to open). It refers to the season when the trees start to bloom. In Greek, the month of April is called Απρίλιος (Aprillius). The word derives its meaning from Aphro, an abbreviation for Aphrodite, the Goddess of Beauty. Its Turkish comes from Persian (April), Syriac (Nisanna), Sumerian (Nisag). The word meaning has meanings such as "first fruit", "first month of the year", "fresh crop", "flood" in Akkadian and Sumerian. In Aşık Pasha's Garibname dated 1330, it is used as "because he came down from the sky nīsān ḳaṭresi". The word is also used in Arabic as "the second month of the Rumi calendar".

May (May)
Its French is Mai and its old English is Maius. Its meaning is again from the Romans; It is named after Maia, the Goddess of Rain. She is also known as the Goddess of fertility and plant growth. Its Latin is Maius menelis (moon of Maia). The word has also passed into Turkish from Latin. The meaning of the word is "fresh, wet cattle manure". It is thought that this name was given due to the high rate of rain precipitation during these periods. According to Nişanyan Dictionary, the word is derived from the word "*mag-ia" and there is no written example of this word.

June (June)
It is Juin in Old French, Junius in Old English, and Junius menelis (Juno's moon) in Latin. The meaning of the word comes from the god Juno, who symbolizes youth in Roman mythology and is also associated with birth. In Turkish, it came from the Syriac word "hazran" meaning "warm" (in Arabic it is ḥazīrān).

July (July)
The month of July, whose English is Julie, whose Latin is Julius and which means "Julius's month", has passed into Turkish from Syriac (from the word tammūz) without much change. This month in the Gregorian calendar was named "July", after the Roman Emperor, political and military leader Julius Caesar. The word "tamu-z", meaning "too hot" and "hell", was used in Old Turkic. In Turkish, this month is called "sickle bear" or "grass bear". Also the origin of the word Tammūz is a Babylonian and Assyrian god (known as Dumuzi in Sumer). It was believed that this god, the god of fertility, gave life to nature in spring.

August (August)
It is named Augustus menilis in Latin, meaning "the month of Augustus". In Latin, augere means "to increase, to grow, to exalt". The month of August is named after Caesar Augustus, the first emperor of Rome. Augustus' birth name was originally Gaius Octavius ​​Thurinus; but the meaning of the word "exaltation"

He got this nickname because of it. Just as Julius Caesar's month July (July) has 31 days, August also has 31 days because he wanted his own month to have 31 days. Since Augustus coincided with the time of Cleopatra's death, he wanted this month to be placed in its place on the calendar. Before this month change was made, since August was the 6th month in the Roman calendar, which started with March, it was called Sextilis menelis (6th month) in Latin. It was translated into Turkish from Latin again. In Turkish, this month is called "Harman month". Its Turkish roots go back to Piri Reis's Kitab-ı Bahriye dated 1521.

September (September)
Its English origin is septembre, and its Latin origin is September. Septem- means seven (7) in Latin. In Latin, October is called menelis. Its meaning in Turkish is "seventh month". This month is named after Septimus Severus, the first African-born Roman Emperor. It was translated into Turkish from the word aylūl in Arabic, in Arabic from the word elūl in Syriac, and in Syriac from the word elūlu in Akkadian - which, according to the Nişanyan Dictionary, is synonymous with the word "harvest festival, the month in which this festival was held". According to some other sources, September is the 6th month of Akkad and means "to shout for joy".

October (October)
Its English origin is Octobre, and its Latin origin is October. The root of the word Octo- means 8 and according to the Roman calendar, this month is the 8th month. In Turkish, it was named October because it was planted in the fields in this month. The entry of this word and the Turkish names of the next two months into our language is very recent: With the law dated January 10, 1945, the name of the month, which was "teşrinievvel" or "Birinci Teşrin" in old Turkish, was changed to "Ekim". Accordingly, the month of Teşrinisani was changed to "November", the month before Kanuni to "December", and the month of Kanunsani to "January".

November (November)
Its English origin is known as Novembre, and its Latin origin is known as Noverber. The word Kasım is thought to have passed into Turkish from Arabic, and in Arabic the word ḳāsim comes from the word meaning "divider, divider". Centuries ago, people in Anatolia used to divide the year into two as November, November, and the days of Hızır and Hızır. The days of Khidr began on May 6 and lasted until November. That's why this month is thought to be called November.

December (December)
Originating in English and French, Decembre, Latin for December, this month is known as the 10th month in the Roman calendar. The root of the Latin meaning of this month is decem-on (10). While this month was Kanununuevvel in Old Turkish, it started to be called December after the Republic. According to certain sources, this is thought to be due to the fact that he stayed between November and January. The word's date is in 1390, "He reformed [between] the gap between Beni-Fezare and Beni-Abs." It is possible to follow up to the lines.

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