James Baquet

    Becky is chatting with her classmate Lily in the common room of their dorm.

    Becky: Hi, Lily. What’s up?

    Lily: Oh, I was just thinking about a question my teacher asked in class today. She said that this month, there’s one date that’s also a sentence.

    Becky: Do you know what it is?

    Lily: I don’t even know what she means! It makes no sense to me.

    Becky: It’s kind of easy, really.

    Lily: How so?

    Becky: Well, first, remember that some commands have no subject.

    Lily: Like “Shut the front door!” or “Lend me your pen?”

    Becky: Right. So this month is...

    Lily: March. Oh, I get it! I heard some moms telling their kids “March!” when they want them to go somewhere.

    Becky: Right, like “Okay, young man. It’s time for bed. March!”

    Lily: Okay, that’s a sentence. But it’s the name of the month, not a date.

    Becky: You’re right. Can you think of any date that would tell someone which direction to march?

    Lily: Let me think... Got it! “March forth!”

    Becky: Right! “Forth” means “forward,” and sounds like “fourth.”

    Lily: That’s kind of clever.

    Becky: Do you know how the month of March got its name?

    Lily: No...

    Becky: Mars was the god of war in Roman times. They couldn’t fight in winter, so as spring came, March was the month they would start fighting again.

    Lily: I see. Does the verb “March” come from that?

    Becky: It’s possible. But most dictionaries say the verb “march” comes from another verb, “mark.”

    Lily: Like mark something down?

    Becky: No, more like marking the boundaries of a piece of land.

    Lily: I see. By marching around it, or pacing it off.

    Becky: That’s right.

    Lily: Hey, my teacher said something else about March.

    Becky: What was that?

    Lily: Something about “lions” and “lambs.”

    Becky: Oh, yes. That’s old weather lore. One thing they said was that “If March comes in like a lion, it will go out like a lamb.”

    Lily: I still don’t get it.

    Becky: Well, a lion is fierce, right?

    Lily: Right. So does that mean “stormy?”

    Becky: Yes, it does. And “out like a lamb” means “calm” or peaceful.

    Lily: So if the weather is stormy early in March, it will be calm at the end?

    Becky: That’s what the old folks said!

    Lily: I guess that wouldn’t be true everywhere.

    Becky: Of course not. A lot of these expressions come from England, or from the areas of the United States originally settled.