THREE TIMES NINE

July, emperor, hay

Linguistics

| 27-07-2021

July is the seventh month of the year in the Gregorian calendar, but used to be the fifth month for the Romans. There's is nothing of that to be found in the name, because the month was later named after Gaius Julius Caesar, because he is said to have been born in that month. Incidentally, the Caesar part, which was pronounced 'kaisar', is the origin of the word for emperor in many European languages (but not in English). That however has nothing to do with the month of July, unlike the word hay, since July is also called the hay month. Nowadays people start mowing, drying, turning, bundling and storing the hay earlier, but in the past making hay was usually done in July.