kalends

Noun

calends pl (plural only)

1. (plural, plural-only) Often with initial capital: the first day of a month.
   • The third day before the calends of February is 30 January, the third calends of March is 27 or 28 February, and the third of the calends of May is 29 April.

   Synonyms:

   Kal., first calends

   1. (Ancient-Rome, historical, plural, plural-only) The first day of a month of the Roman calendar.
2. (broadly, plural, plural-only) A day for settling debts and other accounts.
   • To expedite theſe knots were worthy a learned and memorable Synod; while our enemies expect to ſee the expectation of the Church tir'd out with dependencies and independencies how they will compound, and in what Calends.1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], “To the Parlament of England, with the Assembly”, in The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], →OCLC
3. (Judaism, broadly, obsolete, plural, plural-only) Synonym of Rosh Hodesh (“the Jewish festival of the new moon, which begins the months of the Hebrew calendar”).
   • The feasts of the Israelites were the Sabbath; the first day of each month, called in our translations calends, or new-moon; the three great feasts of the passover, pentecost, and tabernacles, instituted in memory of the three greatest blessings they received from God, […]1809, Claude Fleury, “Their Religion”, in Adam Clarke, transl., The Manners of the Ancient Israelites; […], 3rd edition, London: Sold by William Baynes, […]; J[oseph] Butterworth, […]; and T....

   Synonyms:

   Rosh Hodesh

4. (plural, plural-only, rare) Synonym of calendar; (figurative) an account, a record.
   • [N]ow doth [John] Oldcastle shine: / Him for a Saint within your Kalends hold.1601, Jo[hn] Weever, The Mirror of Martyrs, or The Life and Death of that Thrice Valiant Captaine, and Most Godly Martyre Sir Iohn Old-castle Knight Lord Cobham, [London]: Printed by V[alentine]...

   Synonyms:

   calendar

5. (figuratively, obsolete, plural, plural-only) The first day of something; a beginning.
   • Whoever shall sell a calf or a yearling, let him be answerable against the scab from the calends of winter until the Feast of Patrick.1909, A[rthur] W[ade] Wade-Evans, “English Translation of Harleian Ms. 4353 (V) with the Missing Leaves Supplied from Cleopatra A xiv (W)”, in Welsh Medieval Law: Being a Text of the Laws of Howel...