Note 574 — Chapter VI · LUNAR CALENDARS AND THE WEEK

The nonæ, or Nones, were so called because, by the Roman inclusive reckoning, they fell on the ninth day (nonus) before the Ides (Varro, loc. cit.). Plutarch’s derivation from novus, new or young, referring to the waxing moon, is without justification (Quæstiones Romanæ, 24). On the etymology of idus see Walde, Lateinisches etymologisches Wörterbuch,² p. 375. The Romans had no name, corresponding to nonæ, for the last quarter of the moon. It has been argued, therefore, that the Nones never marked the first quarter and that they were introduced, quite artificially, during the regal period (R. Flex, Die älteste Monatseinteilung der Römer, Jena, 1880, pp. 5 sq., 24 sqq., 36, 42).