Possibly a contraction of theOld Latin personal name*Iovilios(“descended from or pertaining toJove”); seeIovis, or fromAncient Greekἴουλος(íoulos,“downy first beard hairs (of a young man)”). The monthquīntīlis was renamed afterJulius Caesar in 44BC.
Iūlius (feminineIūlia,neuterIūlium);first/second-declension adjective
In Classical Latin, month names were regularly used as adjectives, generally modifying a case-form ofmēnsis m sg(“month”) or of one of the nouns used in theRoman calendar to refer to specific days of the month from which other days were counted:Calendae f pl(“calends”),Nōnae f pl(“nones”),Īdūs f pl(“ides”). However, the masculine nounmēnsis could be omitted byellipsis, so the masculine singular forms of month names eventually came to be used as proper nouns.[1]
The accusative plural adjective formsAprīlīs,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]
First/second-declension adjective.
| singular | plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | feminine | neuter | masculine | feminine | neuter | ||
| nominative | Iūlius | Iūlia | Iūlium | Iūliī | Iūliae | Iūlia | |
| genitive | Iūliī | Iūliae | Iūliī | Iūliōrum | Iūliārum | Iūliōrum | |
| dative | Iūliō | Iūliae | Iūliō | Iūliīs | |||
| accusative | Iūlium | Iūliam | Iūlium | Iūliōs | Iūliās | Iūlia | |
| ablative | Iūliō | Iūliā | Iūliō | Iūliīs | |||
| vocative | Iūlie | Iūlia | Iūlium | Iūliī | Iūliae | Iūlia | |
Iūlius m sg (genitiveIūliīorIūlī);second declension
Second-declension noun, singular only.
1Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).
From the personal name:
From the month name:
These borrowings are ultimately but perhaps not directly from Latin. They are organized into geographical and language family groups, not by etymology.
Roman calendar on Wikipedia.Wikipedia