calends

American  

[kal-uhndz] / ˈkæl əndz /

Or kalends

noun

(usually used with a plural verb)

1. the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar, from which the days of the preceding month were counted backward to the ides.

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calends British  

/ ˈkælɪndz /

plural noun

1. the first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar

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Etymology

Origin of calends

1325–75; Middle English kalendes, alteration (with native plural suffix) of Latin kalendae, perhaps equivalent to cal- (base of calāre to proclaim) + -end- formative suffix (perhaps for *-and- ) + -ae plural ending

Example Sentences

Late in the year, on the 12th before the calends of January, or the 21st of December, there took place a little party at Puteoli, the account of which interests us.

From The Life of Cicero Volume II. by Trollope, Anthony

If Janiveer calends be summerly gay 'Twill be winterly weather till calends of May.

From Dictionary of English Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases With a Copious Index of Principal Words by Preston, Thomas

These two days, days of solemn festivity in the calends of the Church, have been duly kept, and the population looks cheerful as it swarms through the streets.

From At Home And Abroad Or, Things And Thoughts In America and Europe by Fuller, Arthur B.

On the eighth of the calends of February Ciaran settled in Cluain, the tenth day of the moon, a Saturday.

From The Latin & Irish Lives of Ciaran Translations Of Christian Literature. Series V. Lives Of The Celtic Saints by MacAlister, R.A. Stewart

The festival of Augustus, celebrated on the calends of August, was replaced by that of St Peter in vinculis, established on the 1st of that month.

From A Treatise on Relics by Calvin, John