It’s Listopad – or is it?
This is the first day of the month that we in Britain call November. In Latin, ‘novem’ means nine and November was the ninth month in the Roman calendar. It is now the eleventh month in the Gregorian calendar which is the most widely used in the world.
But, in the calendar of the Czech Republic (a country I visit often), this month is called Listopad. The name means ‘falling leaves’ and obviously refers to what we see at this time of year. We find the same name for this month in the Polish calendar.
However, in the calendar of Croatia (where I was last week), last month was Listopad. The Croatians reckon – probably correctly – that leaves fall more in the ninth month of the year than in the tenth (indeed that’s why Americans call Autumn ‘the Fall’).
November 1st, 2007 at 9:14 pm
And, if I remember correctly – Fall is the right word. Spring, Summer and Winter are not Latin based and Autumn is – so the US of A has it right this time.