Have you ever paused to wonder at the names of our months? Nearly all of them are taken from the Roman calendar, which means there are some hold overs from a culture and language that may seem odd to us. Some of the months are named for gods (January, March, April, May, June), two were re-named for emporers (July and August) and the rest…the rest are very simply numbers.

This makes sense once you realize that the –ber ending means “month.” Add in the Latin words for the numbers 7 (sept), 8 (oct), 9 (nov), and 10 (dec) and you get September, October, November, and December.

November, then, literally means “ninth month.” But…why, when it’s the eleventh?

Because the Roman calendar only had 10 months, and it actually started in March! The oddity here being that they still knew the solar year was about 365 days, which meant that the months weren’t very regulated in length, and were apparently applied very haphazardly. Eventually the Greek lunar calendar was united with the solar calendar, January and February were added in, and the lengths were set.

In my part of the world, this ninth month that is in fact the eleventh month marks the beginning of a season of holidays, autumn turning to winter, and the year winding down. For many of us who are accustomed to celebrating Thanksgiving in November, the month also becomes a time to focus on gratitude.

What does November mean for your family and community?

Last week, my son and I were (for some reason I can’t recall) talking about caffeine, and how it occurs naturally in coffee. Which led him to ask, “Is that where the word caffeine comes from? From coffee?”

Insert me going, “Huh. You know, I bet it does…” and pulling up the etymology site on my computer (by which I mean clicking into the tab that is always open, LOL). And sure enough!

Caffeine comes directly from the German Kaffe and was in fact originally spelled kaffein. Named for it because it naturally occurs in coffee. Pretty straight forward! The stimulant itself was identified around 1830. So there you go. Score one for the boy who doesn’t even like that glorious brew like the rest of the family does… 😉

I saw a Facebook post a couple weeks ago in which someone realized disgruntled was the opposite of gruntled–a word they’d never heard before, but which they were “very gruntled to learn about.” I got a good laugh out of it…so naturally, had to look it up. Though in this case, the looking-up taught me that it wasn’t quite as straightforward as all that.

Back in the Middle Ages, gruntled meant “to grumble or complain.” Apparently occasionally the prefix dis- means “very, entirely,” which is what it does in this case (who knew?). So disgruntle began its life as a verb that meant “to disappoint, offend, or throw into a sulky state.” The verb was rarely used as a regular verb, though–mostly only as a past participle, disgruntled. Which has been a common word since 1680.

It wasn’t until 1938 that someone thought it would be fun to create a back-form for gruntle, that means the opposite of disgruntled–namely, “pleased, satisfied.” By this time, the original meaning of gruntle (“to grunt”) had been lost to the mists of the past, so the word was wide open to new meaning. 😉

I’m sure you’re very gruntled to learn about that too.