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- For a long time, different regions ruled by different empires used different calendars.
- Then around the 3rd century BC, the Roman Empire began to expand.
- Being one of the largest kingdoms in the world, it ruled a significant population.
- And this population followed the Roman calendar, which had March as the first month.
- So, September was month Seven (from septem, Latin for seven), and October was month eight (octo, Latin for eight).
- Similarly, November was month nine (novem, Latin for nine), and December month ten (decem, Latin for ten).
- There are several theories on how these months got ‘ber’ as a suffix.
- 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).
- One theory suggests that the “ber” months signalled the beginning of cooler weather and made people go ‘brrr’ (shiver).
- Another suggests that ‘ber’ comes from ‘per’ – 7th month per 12 months is Septem‘per’.
Image courtesy of Bich Tran through Pexels
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