Why do the last four months end with ‘ber’?

1. For a long time, different regions ruled by different empires used different calendars.
2. Then around the 3rd century BC, the Roman Empire began to expand.
3. Being one of the largest kingdoms in the world, it ruled a significant population.
4. And this population followed the Roman calendar, which had March as the first month.
5. So, September was month Seven (from septem, Latin for seven), and October was month eight (octo, Latin for eight).
6. Similarly, November was month nine (novem, Latin for nine), and December month ten (decem, Latin for ten).
7. There are several theories on how these months got ‘ber’ as a suffix.
8. The first one is that ‘ber’ doesn’t have any meaning, and it is just an adjectival suffix like -able (readable), -ful (joyful), or -ous (dangerous).
9. One theory suggests that the “ber” months signalled the beginning of cooler weather and made people go ‘brrr’ (shiver).
10. Another suggests that ‘ber’ comes from ‘per’ – 7th month per 12 months is Septem‘per’.

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