Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The day of the new moon and the first day of the month in the ancient Roman calendar.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In some translations of the Old Testament, the Jewish festival of the new moon.
  • A calendar or orderly record, primarily of dates, but also sometimes of other facts.
  • An appointed day; a day set for the payment of a debt or the payment of interest due.
  • In the Roman calendar, the first day of the month.
  • The beginning or first period.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun plural The first day of each month in the ancient Roman calendar.
  • noun plural a time that will never come, as the Greeks had no calends.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun the first day of a month.
  • noun the first day of a season.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English kalendes, from Latin kalendae; see kelə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English kalendes, from Latin kalendae, calendae, from calare ("to proclaim (the first day of a month was proclaimed in ancient Rome)")

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Examples

  • As I have heard nothing of you since the Assyrian calends, which is much longer ago than the Greek, you may perhaps have died in

    The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 3 Horace Walpole 1757

  • “The appellation of Bissextile, which marks the inauspicious year, is derived from the repetition of the sixth day of the calends of March.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » I Should Note for the Record 2010

  • (Let that be a warning to all of you who keep putting off will making till the Greek calends.)

    Shakespeare Controversies 2010

  • (Let that be a warning to all of you who keep putting off will making till the Greek calends.)

    Stromata Blog: 2009

  • (Let that be a warning to all of you who keep putting off will making till the Greek calends.)

    Bits and Pieces from Westercon 2009

  • “The appellation of Bissextile, which marks the inauspicious year, is derived from the repetition of the sixth day of the calends of March.”

    The Volokh Conspiracy » I Should Note for the Record 2010

  • The first add-a-day leap year was 45 B.C. The new Julian leap day wasn't added at the end of February originally, but on the day preceding the 6th of the calends of March.

    Feb. 29, 45 B.C.: Julius Caesar Takes the Leap 2008

  • The first Christians followed the computations of the empire, and reckoned by calends, nones, and ides, like their masters; they likewise received the Bissextile, which we have still, although it was found necessary to correct it in the fifteenth century, and it must some day be corrected again; but they conformed to the Jewish methods in the celebration of their great feasts.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Calendar, although we have no calends, and he was obliged to reform it himself.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

  • Pliny tells us that it was called bruma; and, like Servius, places it on the 8th of the calends of January.

    A Philosophical Dictionary 2007

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