How did this phrase come to be? I understand that it refers to someone older dating someone younger, but I can’t figure out why. Please help.
The “May” portion of the realtionship being the younger, refers to a person in the “springtime” of their life. And of course, “December”
refers to the older person in their “winter” ie…one step closer to death to be blunt.
As far as the actual origin of the phrase or who, of anyone knows, coined it.
That’s all I’ve got.
The “May” portion of the realtionship being the younger, refers to a person in the “springtime” of their life. And of course, “December”
refers to the older person in their “winter” ie…one step closer to death to be blunt.
As far as the actual origin of the phrase or who, of anyone knows, coined it.
That’s all I’ve got.
Chaucer’s The Merchant’s Tale features a dirty old man named January who is married to a young girl named May, which might be a possible origin. I have no idea when / how January would have morphed into December.
September Song?
Nicholas Vincent Lindsay
(1879-1931)
Man is a torch, then ashes soon,
May and June, then dead December,
Dead December, then again June.
Who shall end my dream’s confusion?
Life is a loom, weaving illusion.
from The Chinese Nightengale
And I always thought this expression meant a ‘whirlwind six-months-and-it’s-over because of external circumstances like moving to another country’ kind of romance.
But then I know little about romance.
This might have something to do with Christian version of the Julian calendar, which throughout the Middle Ages observed March 25 as New Year’s Day. January would then have occured pretty late in the year.
When January 1st became the standard New Year’s Day (not widely observed as such until the 18th century), then the “May/January” pairing wouldn’t hold its original meaning anymore, both months now occuring at the beginning of the year. In the reformed calendar, December would make more sense as it now came late in the year.
Skopo, that makes sense.