# august

Pronunciation: say "AW-guhst" US /ˈɔɡəst/, UK /ˈɔːɡəst/

## Proper noun · August

1. The eighth month of the year in the Roman, Julian, and Gregorian calendars, coming after July and before September.
   - Simple: The eighth month of the year, after July and before September.
   - _The new tariff takes effect on August 1, so importers are rushing to ship their goods before then._
   - _It was unusually cool for August, and we needed jackets on the porch in the evenings._

## Adjective

Pronunciation: say "aw-GUST" US /ɔˈɡʌst/, UK /ɔːˈɡʌst/

2. Having a grand, dignified, and noble character that inspires awe and deep respect.
   - Simple: Very grand and important, so that people feel deep respect and wonder.
   - _The novelist was elected to the academy, an august body of writers and scholars._
   - _The ceremony took place in the august surroundings of the old cathedral._
3. Belonging by birth to a noble family, said of a person or of the family line itself.
   - Simple: Born into a noble family, or describing that noble family itself, such as a family of lords.
   - _The count could trace his august ancestry back to the first kings of the region._
   - _Despite his august birth, he chose to work as a village schoolteacher._

## Verb

Pronunciation: say "aw-GUST" US /ɔˈɡʌst/, UK /ɔːˈɡʌst/

4. To make something real or fulfilled; to bring it to realization. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To make something, like a hope, come true.

## Other meanings

- (noun) Alternative form of auguste: a circus clown who plays the clumsy, foolish partner to a neat whiteface clown.
- (verb) To cause something to become ripe; to ripen it.

## Origin

**Meanings 2–3** — Either French auguste (“noble, stately”) or Latin augustus (“majestic, venerable; imperial, royal”) is the source, and both go back to Latin augeō (“to increase, enlarge, spread”). The word is a doublet of Augustus.
**Meaning 1** — Through early Middle English August(us) and Old English Agustus from Latin augustus, the name of the month, taken from the title Augustus ("venerable") of the Roman emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/august (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).