Solmōnaþ

Solmōnaþ (modern English: dirt or mud month) was the Anglo-Saxon name for the month of February.^[1]

The name was recorded by the Anglo-Saxon scholar Bede in his treatise De temporum ratione (The Reckoning of Time), saying that " Sol-Monath can be said to be the month of cakes, which were offered to their gods”;^[2] however, there is no other reference to sol meaning ‘cake’ in Old English. Sol is used to mean ‘mud’ or ‘dirt’ in most texts, and so a far more likely meaning is that the sol month was the muddy month, especially given the English climate at that time of year.

See also

• Germanic calendar
• Anglo-Saxon
• Old English

References

1. Cockayne, Thomas. "The shrine: a collection of occasional papers on dry subjects" p.59
2. Chapter XV, De mensibus Anglorum. "Sol-monath dici potest mensis placentarum, quas in eo diis suis offerebant.”