October

See also: october

English

The Month of October by Pierre-Antoine Patel (1699)
October illustration (1903)

October is notable for the brilliant color transitions that foliage undergoes.
Illustration featuring common Halloween symbolism, including witches, bats, and vegetables associated with harvest time (1920)

Alternative forms

Etymology

    From Middle English, borrowed from Old French octobre, from Latin Octōber (“eighth month”), from Latin octō (“eight”), from Proto-Indo-European *oḱtṓw (“twice four”); + Latin -ber, from -bris, an adjectival suffix; October was the eighth month in the Roman calendar.

    Pronunciation

    • (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɒkˈtəʊ.bə/
    • (General American) IPA(key): /ɑkˈtoʊ.bəɹ/
    • Audio (US):(file)
    • Rhymes: -əʊbə(ɹ)
    • Hyphenation: Oc‧to‧ber

    Proper noun

    October (plural Octobers)

    2. The tenth month of the Gregorian calendar, following September and preceding November.
      Alternative forms: Oct, Oct., OCT, 8ber, 10
      Synonym: (Quakerism) Tenth Month
      Holonyms: calendar year; year
      Comeronyms: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, November, December
      • 2025 July 18, Timothy McLaughlin, “A Rebel Army Is Building a Rare-Earth Empire on China's Border. The Kachin Independence Organization fought for decades in obscurity. Now it's supplying essential minerals to manufacturers around the world”, in Bloomberg Businessweek‎[1], archived from the original on 18 July 2025:
        By October it was advancing steadily toward Pangwa, encountering meager resistance.
    3. (rare) A female given name transferred from the month name.
      • 2002 January, Cincinnati Magazine, volume 35, number 4, page 138:
        The other one [book] I just read is October Suite by Maxine Clair (Random House, $23.95). It's about a woman named October. She's a young black schoolteacher in the 1950s ...
      • 2009, C.S. Graham, The Archangel Project, →ISBN, page 31:
        From somewhere in the distance came the screaming whine of an emergency vehicle's siren. Lance flipped open his phone. “Get me the address of a woman named October Guinness . . . That's right, October,” he said again, [...]

    Derived terms

    Descendants

    Translations

    Noun

    October (uncountable)

    1. (historical) A type of ale traditionally brewed in October. [from 18th c.]
      • 1716 March 21 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison], The Drummer; or, The Haunted House. A Comedy. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], published 1716 (indicated as 1715), →OCLC, Act V, page 46:
        Sir, if I vvas vvorthy to adviſe you, I vvou'd have a Bottle of good October by me. Shall I ſet a Cup of old Stingo at your Elbovv?
      • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC:
        [T]he gate of a large chateau, of a most noble and venerable appearance […] induced them to alight and view the apartments, contrary to their first intention of drinking a glass of his October at the door.
      • 1898, Stanley John Weyman, “III. Tutor and Pupils”, in The Castle Inn:
        Sir George, borne along in his chair, peered up at this well-known window--well-known, since in the Oxford of 1767 a man's rooms were furnished if he had tables and chairs, store of beef and October, an apple-pie and Common Room port—and seeing the casement brilliantly lighted, smiled a trifle contemptuously.

    Verb

    Octobering in 1927

    October (third-person singular simple present Octobers, present participle Octobering, simple past and past participle Octobered)

    1. (historical, transitive) In the early Soviet Union, to give (a child) a name tinged with Soviet revolutionary thought, as opposed to religious christening.

    See also

    Gregorian calendar monthsedit

    Anagrams

    Latin

    Alternative forms

    Etymology

      By analogy with September, as if from octō and a suffix -ber. In the Roman calendar, the year began with Mārtius (“March”), and Octōber was the eighth month of the year.

      Pronunciation

      Adjective

      Octōber (feminine Octōbris); third-declension three-termination adjective

      1. of October
        • 1st century CE — Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella, De Re Rustica, Book XII
          Cum eius radicem mense Octobri, quo[d] maxime matura est.
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)
        • 2023, Pope Francis, Est utique fiducia:
          Datum Romae, Laterani, die XV mensis Octobris, in memoria sanctae Teresiae a Iesu, anno MMXXIII, Pontificatus Nostri undecimo
          (please add an English translation of this quotation)

      Usage notes

      In Classical Latin, month names were regularly used as adjectives, generally modifying a case-form of mēnsis m sg (“month”) or of one of the nouns used in the Roman calendar to refer to specific days of the month from which other days were counted: kalendae f pl (“calends”), nōnae f pl (“nones”), īdūs f pl (“ides”). However, the masculine noun mēnsis could be omitted by ellipsis, so the masculine singular forms of month names eventually came to be used as proper nouns.[1]

      The accusative plural adjective forms Aprīlīs, Septembrīs, Octōbrīs, Novembrīs, Decembrīs[2] are ambiguous in writing, being spelled identically to the genitive singular forms of the nouns; nevertheless, the use of ablative singular forms in -ī and comparison with the usage of other month names as adjectives supports the interpretation of -is as an accusative plural adjective ending in Classical Latin phrases such as "kalendas Septembris".[3]

      Declension

      Third-declension three-termination adjective.

      singular plural
      masculine feminine masculine feminine
      nominative Octōber Octōbris Octōbrēs Octōbrēs
      genitive Octōbris Octōbris Octōbrium Octōbrium
      dative Octōbrī Octōbrī Octōbribus Octōbribus
      accusative Octōbrem Octōbrem Octōbrēs
      Octōbrīs       		Octōbrēs
      Octōbrīs
      ablative Octōbrī Octōbrī Octōbribus Octōbribus
      vocative Octōber Octōbris Octōbrēs Octōbrēs
      • In medieval and New Latin, the ablative singular can also be found as Octōbre.

      Proper noun

      Octōber m sg (genitive Octōbris); third declension

      2. October

      Declension

      Third-declension noun (i-stem, ablative singular in -ī), singular only.

      singular
      nominative Octōber
      genitive Octōbris
      dative Octōbrī
      accusative Octōbrem
      ablative Octōbrī
      vocative Octōber
      • In medieval and New Latin, the ablative singular can also be found as Octōbre.

      Descendants

      • Gallo-Italic
        • Emilian: utåbber, otòber, utòber
        • Ligurian: ottobre
        • Lombard: utuber, utùer
        • Piedmontese: octóber
      • Italo-Dalmatian
      • Gallo-Romance
        • Old Francoprovençal: oitoiro, otoiro, oitembro
        • Franco-Provençal: octoiro
        • Old French: oitovre, uitovre, oituevre
        • Old Occitan: ochoire, oitor, uidor
        • Old Catalan: vuitubri, uitubri
          • Catalan: vuitubre (Eivissenc)
      • Rhaeto-Romance
      • Venetan: otobre
      • West Iberian
      Borrowings
      Unsorted borrowings

      These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.

      See also

      Gregorian calendar months: mēnsēs annīedit

      References

      1. ^ Karl Gottlob Zumpt (1853), Leonhard Schmitz, Charles Anthon, transl., A Grammar of the Latin Language, 3rd edition, pages 31, 85
      2. ^ Gaeng, Paul A. (1968), An Inquiry into Local Variations in Vulgar Latin: As Reflected in the Vocalism of Christian Inscriptions, page 183
      3. ^ Frost, P. (1861), The Germania and Agricola of Tacitus, page 161

      Further reading

      • “October”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers

      Scots

      Etymology

      From Latin Octōber (“of the eighth month”).

      Pronunciation

      • IPA(key): [okˈtobər]

      Proper noun

      October

      1. October

      See also

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