# Why is the word "Ides," as in "the Ides of March" plural?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [March 15, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688 "2005-03-15T19:30:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 16
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/1 "2005-03-15T19:30:19Z")
Well…why is it?
In [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=307113), various Dopers discuss the fact that today is the Ides of March. The first post says that “The Ides of March are come.”
Really, if the Ides of March is a single day, then how come The Ides of March _are_ come, and not _is_ come? And what’s with the phrases “is come” and “are come” anyway? When the word “come” go from being an adjective to being a verb? Or, maybe “is come” gave rise to “has come,” and “are come” is the archaic form for “have come,” in which case it was the auxiliary verb in the verb phrase that changed.
In any case, any light you guys could shed on either of these topics would be appreciated.
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/2 "2005-03-15T19:59:00Z")
The word “ides” comes from the earliest Roman calendar, said to have been created by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. The word “ides” is from the Latin “to divide.” The Ides were meant to mark the full moon, but since the solar calendar months and lunar months are of different lengths, the ides lost its original meaning. It can be used with either a singular or plural verb: [http://www.bartleby.com/61/15/I0021500.html](http://www.bartleby.com/61/15/I0021500.html)
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### Author:  [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/3 "2005-03-15T20:03:36Z")
Here’s a lot of additional info:
[http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/calendar27.pdf](http://www.tondering.dk/claus/cal/calendar27.pdf)
Also note that the Romans had only three named days in the month. The “Ides” was one of the three.
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### Author:  [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/4 "2005-03-15T20:09:44Z")
I did a search and the word “ides” did not appear in that link. What information on ides does it contain?
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/5 "2005-03-15T20:20:54Z")
This is where Nott deleted his lame Ides joke. 😃
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### Author:  [@barbitu8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/barbitu8)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/6 "2005-03-15T20:25:08Z")
> [@Exapno Mapcase](#):
>
> I did a search and the word “ides” did not appear in that link. What information on ides does it contain?
The word appears as “idus”:
> [@](#):
>
> 2.8.1 How did the Romans number days?
> The Romans didn’t number the days sequentially from 1. Instead they had three fixed points in
> each month:
> “Kalendae” (or “Calendae”), which was the first day of the month.
> “Idus”, which was the 13th day of January, February, April, June, August, September,
> November, and December, or the 15th day of March, May, July, or October.
> “Nonae”, which was the 9th day before Idus (counting Idus itself as the 1st day).
> The days between Kalendae and Nonae were called “the 5th day before Nonae”, “the 4th day
> before Nonae”, “the 3rd day before Nonae”, and “the day before Nonae”. (There was no “2nd day
> before Nonae”.
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### Author:  [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/7 "2005-03-15T20:28:15Z")
I often ask this question when I’m stuck with certain letters in Scrabble. Ides is acceptable, ide is not. Now I know.
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### Author:  [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/8 "2005-03-16T02:31:09Z")
OP? Why is it plural? It is not plural. It is a name.
ides: The 15th day of March, May, July, or October or the 13th day of the other months in the ancient Roman calendar.
[\*\* ides etc. \*\*](http://www.infoplease.com/spot/ides1.html)
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### Author:  [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/9 "2005-03-16T02:57:16Z")
So consequently it \*should \*have been “… is come”?
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/10 "2005-03-16T03:15:20Z")
It was always used as an English plural in the rhyme we learnt in Latin class at school…
_in March, July, October, May, the Ides fall on the fifteenth day_
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### Author:  [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/11 "2005-03-16T04:56:50Z")
> [@](#):
>
> It was always used as an English plural in the rhyme we learnt in Latin class at school…
>
> in March, July, October, May, the Ides fall on the fifteenth day
That’s cos in that rhyme you’re talking about more than one Ides. If you were talking about the Ides of March, you’d say “The Ides falls on the fifteenth day.”
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/12 "2005-03-16T05:00:48Z")
Except in April where on the 15th (here in the USA) we get the _rides_ of April… 😃
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### Author:  [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/13 "2005-03-16T05:02:12Z")
> [@yBeayf](#):
>
> That’s cos in that rhyme you’re talking about more than one Ides. If you were talking about the Ides of March, you’d say “The Ides falls on the fifteenth day.”
I don’t agree. I’d say that the rhyme is shorthand for four different sentences:
in March the Ides fall on the fifteenth day
in July the Ides fall on the fifteenth day etc.
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### Author:  [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/14 "2005-03-16T13:32:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And what’s with the phrases “is come” and “are come” anyway?
Well, in German, both “to have” and “to be” are used as auxiliary verbs for this tense. Which one is used depends on the main verb; for “come”, “to be” is used. Since English and German derive from the same root, this is just an archaic holdover in English.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/15 "2005-03-16T14:13:11Z")
> [@Scribble](#):
>
> Well…why is it?
>
> In this thread, various Dopers discuss the fact that today is the Ides of March. The first post says that “The Ides of March are come.”
The phrase “The ides of March are come” is actually a quotation, from [Julius Caesar](http://www.theplays.org/julius/):
> [@](#):
>
> _Act III, Scene i: Lines 6-20 of 339
> The same. A street._
>
> **Caesar** [To the Soothsayer] The ides of March are come.
> **Soothsayer** Ay, Caesar; but not gone.
“To be” is traditionally used as the auxillary for intransitive verbs, ones that don’t have an object.
The most famous phrase using this construction is used at Easter: “He is risen.”
“To have” increasingly is used as the auxillary for intransitive verbs, but still sounds odd to me in some constructions. For example, I would say, “I am gone” rather than “I have gone” but I think now it’s more a matter of style rather than prescription.
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### Author:  [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2005, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-word-ides-as-in-the-ides-of-march-plural/294688/16 "2005-03-16T14:49:53Z")
**Scribble** :
> [@](#):
>
> When the word “come” go from being an adjective to being a verb?
I don’t think that’s what you meant to ask, but just for the heck of it, the word “come” is nearly always a verb, and even when it’s not it doesn’t tend to be an adjective.
::tries to think of a valid expression using “come” as an adjective::
The come event?