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December

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: december

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
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The central square of Old Town, Bratislava, featuring a decorative model thatched cottage with Christmas season decorations (December 2024)
A tree lighting ceremony at Ramstein Air Base, Germany to commemorate the holiday season. Attendees are wearing winter clothing.

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Etymology tree
Proto-Indo-European *déḱm̥
Proto-Italic *dekəm
Latin decem
Latin December
Latin decembremlbor.
Old French decembrebor.
Middle English December
English December

    From Middle English December, Decembre, from Old French decembre, from Latin december (“tenth month”), from Latin decem (“ten”); + Latin -ber, from -bris, an adjectival suffix; December was the tenth month in the Roman calendar.

    Pronunciation

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    Proper noun

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    December (plural Decembers)

    2. The twelfth and last month of the Gregorian calendar, following November and preceding the January of the following year, containing the southern solstice.
      Alternative forms: Dec, Dec., DEC, 10ber, 12
      Synonyms: Yulemonth (religious or archaic), (Quakerism) Twelfth Month
      Holonyms: calendar year; year
      Comeronyms: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November
      • a. 1633 (date written), Thomas Dekker, The Wonder of a Kingdome, London: […] Robert Raworth for Nicholas Vavasour, […], published 1636, →OCLC, Act I, signature [A3], recto:
        Old Oakes doe not eaſily fall: / Decembers cold hand combes my head and beard, / But May ſvvimmes in my blood; and he that vvalkes / VVithout his vvooden third legge, is never old.
      • 2023 June 8, Richard Collett, “He ran out of countries to visit, so he created his own”, in CNN‎[1], archived from the original on 16 May 2026:
        Wearing his best suit and sunglasses, the sultan of Slowjamastan officially declared independence from the United States of America at 12:26 p.m. on December 1, 2021 as he broadcast the secession live from his open-air government “office” in Dublândia, the capital of the Republic of Slowjamastan.
      • 2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR‎[2], archived from the original on 28 August 2026:
        It was sparked by reports of an outbreak of kindness on a cold December morning in 2012.
    3. (rare) A female given name transferred from the month name [in turn from English].
      • 2017, Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Personal Stereo, →ISBN, page 45:
        But others were less than thrilled with this new gizmo, particularly its addictive qualities. There were reports of breakups threatened and consummated over it. “Our marriage or your Sony,” one woman told her husband, who duly sold the Walkman to a bachelor friend. A young woman named December Cole, a sales executive at a beauty magazine, recalled a trip to Atlantic City with "a basically rude" man who wouldn't stop "bopping around to his own music."
    4. A surname.

    Hyponyms

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    Derived terms

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    Descendants

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    Translations

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    Statistics

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    • According to the 2010 United States Census, December is the 97210th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 187 individuals. December is most common among White (57.22%) and Black/African American (32.09%) individuals.

    See also

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    Gregorian calendar monthsedit

    References

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    1. ^ Wells, J. C. (1982), Accents of English: Beyond the British Isles, volume 3, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 646

    Further reading

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    Anagrams

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    Latin

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    Alternative forms

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    Etymology

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      Uncertain, perhaps by haplology of earlier *deke(m)-mēmbris (“of or pertaining to the tenth month”), from *deke(m)-mēnzris, from decem (“ten”) + *mēnzris, from *mēnzlis, from *mēns (“month”) +‎ *-lis; see decem, and mēnsis. In the Roman calendar, the year began with Mārtius (“March”), and December was the tenth month of the year.

      Pronunciation

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      Adjective

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      December (feminine Decembris); third-declension three-termination adjective

      1. of December
        • 59 B.C.E. - 17 C.E. — Titus Livius, Ab Urbe Condita, Book XXII
          postremo Decembri iam mense ad aedem Saturni Romae immolatum est.
          finally in the middle of the month of December there was a sacrifice at the Temple of Saturn.

      Usage notes

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      In Classical Latin, month names were regularly used as adjectives, generally modifying a case-form of mēnsis m sg (“month”) or of one of the nouns used in the Roman calendar to refer to specific days of the month from which other days were counted: kalendae f pl (“calends”), nōnae f pl (“nones”), īdūs f pl (“ides”). However, the masculine noun mēnsis could be omitted by ellipsis, so the masculine singular forms of month names eventually came to be used as proper nouns.[1]

      The accusative plural adjective forms Aprīlīs, Septembrīs, Octōbrīs, Novembrīs, Decembrīs[2] are ambiguous in writing, being spelled identically to the genitive singular forms of the nouns; nevertheless, the use of ablative singular forms in -ī and comparison with the usage of other month names as adjectives supports the interpretation of -is as an accusative plural adjective ending in Classical Latin phrases such as "kalendas Septembris".[3]

      Declension

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      Third-declension three-termination adjective.

      singular plural
      masculine feminine masculine feminine
      nominative December Decembris Decembrēs Decembrēs
      genitive Decembris Decembris Decembrium Decembrium
      dative Decembrī Decembrī Decembribus Decembribus
      accusative Decembrem Decembrem Decembrēs
      Decembrīs       		Decembrēs
      Decembrīs
      ablative Decembrī Decembrī Decembribus Decembribus
      vocative December Decembris Decembrēs Decembrēs
      • In New Latin, the ablative singular can also be found as Decembre.

      Proper noun

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      December m sg (genitive Decembris); third declension

      2. December
        Synonym: December mensis
        • 1283 — Tomazina de Savere, published in Josip Lučić (1984) Spisi Dubrovačke Kancelarije, Knjiga II, page 310.
          Die tercio decembris — On the third day of December
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      Declension

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      Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -ī), singular only.

      singular
      nominative December
      genitive Decembris
      dative Decembrī
      accusative Decembrem
      ablative Decembrī
      vocative December

      Descendants

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      Borrowings
      Unsorted borrowings

      These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.

      See also

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      Gregorian calendar months: mēnsēs annīedit

      References

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      1. ^ Karl Gottlob Zumpt (1853), Leonhard Schmitz, Charles Anthon, transl., A Grammar of the Latin Language, 3rd edition, pages 31, 85
      2. ^ Gaeng, Paul A. (1968), An Inquiry into Local Variations in Vulgar Latin: As Reflected in the Vocalism of Christian Inscriptions, page 183
      3. ^ Frost, P. (1861), The Germania and Agricola of Tacitus, page 161

      Old English

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      Pronunciation

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      Proper noun

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      December m

      1. December

      Synonyms

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      See also

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      References

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      Scots

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      Proper noun

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      December

      1. alternative form of Dezember
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