Today is the Ides of March. Since ides means the middle of the month, all the months have them, but thanks to Shakespeare and Julius Caesar, March has the famous one.
Grammar Girl recorded a great segment about the meaning of ides on the Roman calendar. Most of it I’d heard before, but there was one word that was new to me and maybe you too.
On the Roman calendar, the first day of the month was called kalends. That is where our word “calendar” comes from. How cool is that? Since the calendar before Julius Caesar was fluid, the months were often reset on the kalends, the first of the month.
I found an interesting article about how the Roman calendar worked. It wasn’t as easy as looking at a pretty picture hanging on a wall with a chart below it. I’m glad that’ all we have to do nowadays.