July

　　七月

　　The first month in the calendar named after a real person, July was named in honour of Julius Caesar after his death in 44 BC, July being the month of his birth. Before it was renamed, the month was known as Quintilis (borrowed into English as Quintile), which means ‘fifth’. If you’ve been counting, you’ll know that July isn’t the fifth month: we’ll come on to that when we reach September and October.

　　这是第一个以人名命名的月份，“July”的命名是为了纪念Julius Caesar(裘里斯凯撒)，他于公元前44年去世，七月正好是他出生的月份。在这个月份更名之前，它叫做“Quintilis”，英语中即为“Quintile”，意为“第五”。如果你会数数的话，你会发现，“July”并不是第五个月份。关于这个问题，等我们提到“September” 和“October”的时候再解释。

　　August

　　八月

　　Following suit, in 8 BC, the month Sextilis (‘sixth’) was renamed after Augustus, the first Roman emperor, who had died six years earlier. Augustus himself was given this title when he became emperor, having previously been known as Octavian. It came from the Latin augustus meaning ‘consecrated, venerable’ which gave rise to the English adjective august, ‘respected and impressive’.

　　同样地，在公元前8世纪，Sextilis (‘sixth’)这个月更名了，以罗马第一位帝王Augustus(奥古斯都)命名。他于公元前8世纪前六年去世。奥古斯都在他成为帝王的那一天起也更名为“August，之前他叫做“Octavian”(屋大维)。这个词来源于拉丁语“augustus”，意为“神圣的，值得尊敬的 ”，这也就赋予了英译词汇“august”(这里作为形容词)“值得尊敬的”的意思。

　　September

　　九月

　　September follows on from Quinitlis and Sextilis, in that it comes from the Latin septem, ‘seven’. As with those (and the rest of the calendar), the numbering is a bit off now: September was originally the seventh month in an ancient Roman ten-month calendar, which started with March.

　　“September”之所以在“Quinitlis”和“Sextilis”之后，因为它来源于拉丁语“septem”，这里是第七的意思。这样的话，算上日历本里剩下的月份，我们现在有点混乱了。“September”起初在古罗马10个月的日历中是排第七个的，那个10个月的日历中，第一个月份是“March”。

　　October

　　十月

　　More of the same: octo is the Latin for ‘eight’, for that ten month calendar. Two months were added to the end of the calendar year around 713 BC, and the beginning of the year was moved to 1 January in 153 BC.

　　同样地，“octo”在拉丁语中是“eight”(八)的意思，因为那个10个月的日历。大约在公元前713年的时候，日历的最后加上了两个月，在公元前153年的时候，一年的开始从一月份计算了。

　　November

　　十一月

　　The pattern continues: November comes from novem, ‘nine’. November is also, we’re afraid, used ‘with allusion to November’s position at the end of the year, and to the characteristic greyness, gloominess, etc., associated with it in the northern hemisphere’. The earliest known example of this allusive use comes from Jane Austen’s posthumously published novel Persuasion.

　　同上：“November”来自“novem”，在古罗马日历中位于第9个月。我们觉得“November”同样也暗指它处在年末，具有灰暗，晦暗的意思，通常和北半球有关。这个暗指性地用法最早出现在简奥斯汀死后出版的小说《说服》。

　　December

　　十二月

　　And we finish off the year with December, from decem, ‘ten’. The month also comes with a brace of adjectives: Decemberish and Decemberly, the latter of which can also be used as an adverb. And there you have it: a whole calendar year of etymologies to see you through the whole of 2016.

　　最后我们来讲讲“December”，来源于“decem”，最初指的是十月。这个词还有一些形容词形式：“Decemberish”和“Decemberly”，后者还可以作为副词。好了，这就是和2016年所有月份的有关的典故来源了。

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（编辑：何莹莹）