740 
MONT II. 
prefent member is C. W. W. Wynne, efq. M.A. brother 
to fir Watkin, and nephew to lord Grenville. This is 
the gentleman who was fo refpe&ably fuppcrted in the 
conteft for fpeaker (June 2, 1B17.) on the retirement of 
Mr. Abbot, now lord Colchefter. Oldfield's Reprefenta- 
tive Hift. Wynne's Hift. of Wales. Beauties of England 
and Wales, vol. xvii. 
MONTGUY'ON. See Monguyon, p. 666. 
MONTH, /! [mona?, Sax. Moon was formerly .written 
mone; and month was written moneth. —It means the period 
in which that planet moneth, or completeth its orbit. 
Tooke's Div. of Parley. —This obfervation is very inge¬ 
nious, although there are no veftiges of a verb of this 
form in the Anglo-Saxon or any of the Gothic languages. 
Jamiefon. —The Saxon mona?, is from mona, the moon ; 
and the Gothic menath, from mena, the fame ; y.r,rr t , Greek. 
Wachter deduces the Gothic word for moon from mana, 
to warn, to admonifh, to inftruCf; and Dr. Jamiefon the 
Saxon mona from monian, the fame. May we not then 
refer alfo to the Greek verb /w viwoj, to indicate, to point 
out, to declare, whence perhaps p mjwj, the moon, and p.ev, 
a month ? If this be admitted, here is the verb to fup- 
port Mr. Tooke’s obfervation, though in other words, viz. 
A month meaneth the period in which that planet warns, 
inftru&s, and points out. Todd.] A fpace of time either 
meafured by the fun or moon: the lunar month is the 
time between the change and change, or the time in 
which the moon returns to the fame point: the folar month 
is the time in which the fun pafies through a fign of the 
zodiac: the calendar-months, by which we reckon time, 
are unequally of thirty or one-and-thirty days, except 
February, which is of twenty-eight, and in leap-year of 
twenty-nine.— Months are not only binary, and meafured 
by the moon, but alfo folary, and terminated by the mo¬ 
tion of the fun, in thirty degrees of the ecliptic. Brown's 
Vulgar Errors. 
As many months as I fuftain’d her hate. 
So many years is file condemn’d by fate 
To daily death. Dry den's Theo. and Hon. 
Mr. Brady, in his very ufeful work entitled “ Claris 
Calendaria, or an Analyfis of the Calendar,” diftinguiflies 
the months into lunar, folar, and vfual ; or, as the latter 
is alfo varioufiy called, natural, civil, political, and 
calendar. 
The lunar month is that fpace of time which the moon 
occupies in palling from any determined point of the 
ecliptic, until it arrive again at the fame point; the folar 
month is that period in which the fun pafles through one 
of the twelve figns of the zodiac. By the vfual month we 
underftand that eftabliflied by law, and varying in the 
number of days 28, 29, 30, or 31, as may be preferibed 
by the calendar; whence the ufual are commonly termed 
calendar months, to diftinguifh them from lunar or folar 
months. 
A month in law is a lunar month, or twenty-eight 
days, unlefs otherwife exprefled; not only becaufe it is 
always one uniform period, but becaufe it falls naturally 
into a quarterly division by weeks. Therefore a leafe for 
twelve months is only for forty-eight weeks ; but, if it be for 
a twelvemonth, in the lingular number, it is good for the 
whole year. 6 Rep. 61. If an agreement be entered into 
for paying five per cent, for twelve months, or at that 
rate for any other given number of months, the calcula¬ 
tion would be made by the calendar months; otherwife, 
the intereft,by exceeding five percent, per annum, would 
be contrary to an exprefs ftatute. In notes of hand, or 
bills of exchange, a month is always a calendar month, 
and muft be paid accordingly; but the intereft or difeount 
upon them muft be calculated by the number of days they 
have to run before they become due. 
Under the article Chronology, vol. iv. p. 534-6, we 
have given a general view of the different kind of months 
and years of different nations, ancient and modern. See 
alfo Calendar and Calends. 
The French republicans divided their year into 1* 
months of 30 days each, and each month into 3 weeks 
(decades) of 10 days each. This might be in imitation 
of the ancient Egyptians, whofe civil year was divided 
into 12 months of 30 days each, and the month into 3 
decans, or periods of 10 days each. (See Sir Wm. Drum¬ 
mond’s CEdipus Judaicus, DifT. iv.) But the Egyptians 
had gone farther: their whole land was partitioned into 
3 provinces, anfwering to the 3 decans, and into 30 names, 
or prefectures, anfwering to the 30 days of each month, 
and correfponding with the 30 deities ruling over each 
day of the month. (Kircher’s CEdipus .) In this the 
French did not follow them. They had no deities or 
faints; and their prefectures, or departments, were more 
numerous.. See the article France, vol. vii. p. 643. 
The names of the French (republican) months have 
been given under the word Calendar, vol. iii. p. 615. and 
it will be feen that they are deferiptive' of the weather 
that may be expeCted at each period. Thofe, however, 
who are unwilling to ailow the French revolutionifts the 
merit of invention, or indeed any merit at all, urge, that 
the epithets adopted are only an imitation of the defigna- 
tions of the ancient months, applied from time immemo¬ 
rial, and then perlevered in, by the Republic of Holland. 
The evidence in proof is the following extraCt from the 
Dutch Almanac, as publifhed before and after the French 
revolution. 
January, - Lauwmaand, - 
February, - Sprokkelmaand, 
March, - - Lentmaand, 
April, - - Grafmaand, 
May, - - Bloumaand, 
June, - - Zomermaand, - 
July, - - - Hooyniaand, - 
Auguft, - Ooftmaand, - - 
September, Herftmaand, - 
October, - Wynmaand, - 
November, Slagtmaand, - 
December, Wintermaand, 
chilly or frofty month, 
vegetation month, 
fpring month, 
grafs month. 
flower, or bloffom, month, 
fummer month, 
hay month, 
liarveft month, 
autumn month, 
wine month, 
daughter month, 
winter month. 
The fame in German, except the word “ maand," which is 
called moand. 
ThefecharaCteriftic names of the months are the remains 
of the ancient Gaulifli titles, which were alfo ufed by our 
Anglo-Saxon anceftors, though our months now bear the 
appellations firlt affigned to them by the Romans. For 
what reafon we abandoned the Saxon titles of the months, 
but retained the Saxon names of the days, it is difficult 
to conje&ure. As the former were expreffive of the pe¬ 
riod of the year in which they were refpeCtively placed, 
and the latter merely the names of the idols worshipped 
on thofe particular days, there does not appear to have 
been much judgment exercifed in the rejection of the 
one, or the retention of the other. 
Roman Month, a tax, or contribution, which was 
formerly collected from all the circles in the German em¬ 
pire. It amounted to 83,964 German florins, when paid 
in fpecie; and to 2681 cavalry, and 12,795 foot-foldiers, 
when the quota was given in effective forces. This tax 
grew out of an old cuftom, which originally prevailed 
When the emperors went to Rome to be crowned, and 
which ferved to defray their expenfes thither. 
MONTH’S MI'ND,y! Longing defire. Johnfon, —Dr. 
Johnfon gives no account of the origin of this phrafe. A 
month's mind is the mind or remembrance days of former 
times, when perfons directed in their wills, that, within 
a year, a month, or forne fpecific time, after their death, 
a requiem for their fouls fliould be performed, and fome 
charity bellowed, as is yet praCtifed by the church of 
Rome. A year's day or a year's mind had each the like 
fignincation ; and when, at later periods, the avaricious 
prrefts regillered in their Obituals thofe perfons who pnr- 
elufed fuch remembrance, a mind-day, or memorial-day , 
became the common mode of appellation for thofe days 
appropriated to the defunct who had not been canonized. 
From 
