KAL'ENDS (Lat. Palendie, abbrev. Pal, or P., from ealure, Gk. KaXei v Palein, to summon; con nected with OHG. Itoitin, Ger. holrn, AS. gehalian, Eng. hale ; not akin to Eng. cull). The Romans made a threefold division of the month into Kalends, Nones, and Ides. The Kalends always fell upon the first of the month; in March, Slay, July, and October, the Nones fell on the seventh, and the Ides on the Fifteenth; and in the re maining months, the Nones on the fifth and the Ides on the thirteenth. The Kalends were so named because it was an old custom of the college of priests on the first of the month to cull (or assemble, calare) the people together to inform them of the festivals and sacred days to be observed during the month; the Nones re ceived their name from being the ninth day be fore the Ides, reckoned inclusively; and the Ides from an obsolete verb, signifying to divide, be cause they nearly halved the month. This three fold division also determined the reckoning of the days, which were not distinguished by the ordinal numbers first, second, third, etc., but
as follows: Those between the Kalends and the Noyes were termed 'the days before the Nones'; those between the Nones and the Ides, 'the days before the Ides'; and the remainder. 'the days lefo•e the Kalends' of the next month. Thus, the Ides of January happening on the thirteenth of that month, the next day would not be termed by a Latin writer the fourteenth, but, the 'nine teenth before the Kalends of February.' reckon ing inclusively—Lc. reckoning both the four teenth of January and the first of February; and so on to the last, which was termed pridie Kalendas.
Ad Ealendas arcreas was a Roman proverbial saying, practically equivalent to 'never.' The Roman Kalends were often appointed as days for payment of rent, interest, etc.; but as the Greeks had no Kalends, a postponement of pay ment `to the Greek Kalends' simply meant a re fusal to pay altogether. It is said that the Em peror Augustus frequently used the phrase, which afterwards became a proverb. See CAL