Everyone knows that March, with its unpredictable weather, is the craziest month of all; however, today we want to tell you about another oddity linked to the third month of the year and to do so you have to go to England.
Well, during the Anglo-Saxon period, much of England adopted the Julian calendar with the associated nomenclature of the months; March is no exception. The latter, in fact, owes its name to the Roman god Mars, as it is in this period of the year that the Latins celebrated in honor of him; however, only this month, during the Middle Ages, continued to be identified with a different word from English speakers: Suffer.
Specifically, the name is recorded almost exclusively in sources of south-west England; one of these is a popular collection of saints’ lives, which resurfaced at the end of the 13th century South English Legendary. It is also used by the chronicler Robert of Gloucester.
Furthermore, it appears that the use of Sufferinside the proverbs about the weather in March, was much appreciated. For example, to comment on the suppression of the Knights Templar by order of Edward II, a 14th century poet states that wealth “it comes and goes as the weather does in Lide”. Again, a formula to ward off diseases from the 17th century goes like this: “Eat leeks in Lide and ramsins [aglio selvatico] in May, and all year after the doctors can play”.
The etymology of “Lide” goes back to the Old English name A shelf and he is the only one who managed to survive among the common people, following the spread of the Julian calendar. A shelf it seems to be related to the Old English word hlud, meaning “loud, noisy”; in short, adjectives explanatory of the nature of March.