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  • The thirteenth month of the calendar. Bet you didn't know there were thirteen months, did you? In fact, you can technically have as many months as you want. Our Gregorian calendar only uses twelve of them. But certain calendars, such as the Hebrew or Arabian, have the potentiality for thirteen months: and to support these in computer programs, specifically the Java language, the term Undecimber was introduced.

    The name derives from the Latin undecim, or eleven.

    August 20, 2008

  • Unimpressed. I used to have a 100-month calendar hanging on my wall.

    August 20, 2008

  • So, bil, there were only around 3 or 4 days in each month? Should I assume that is the menstrual cycle of female bilbies?

    August 20, 2008

  • Assume away at your peril! Who says a year has to be based on the time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun?

    August 20, 2008

  • There was a perfectly good name Undecember already: it actually occurred in 46 BCE (just after November, before Duodecember, and two months before December). The terminal difference between decem "ten" and undecim "eleven" is presumably because of the difference in distances away from the stress: so in Undecember, with stress on -cem-, this change of /e/ to /i/ would not apply.

    And I don't think the existence of a thirteenth month implies that there can be more than thirteen: how many returns of the moon can you fit in one year? Okay, 46 BCE was an exception and had fifteen months.

    August 20, 2008

  • That may be, but Undecimber is the term used; contrary to what is normal, I didn't coin this one!

    August 20, 2008

  • Rats, I have to withdraw this. There seems to be no good evidence the name Undecember was used at the time: Cicero calls them simply mensis intercalaris prior and mensis intercalaris posterior.

    However, I do think it's better formed than Undecimber, for the phonological reasons I gave.

    August 20, 2008

  • Lousy Smarch weather.

    August 21, 2008