Wednesday, 11 November 2015

Why are there several "expressions" in the English language related to the third month of the year?

I'm not convinced there are an unusually high number of expressions. If there are, you'll have to come up with more and better examples. Four is not a huge number, and two of these are readily explained:



  • "Ides of March" is simply alludes to the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, popularized by Shakespeare.


  • "March Madness" is simply an alliterative term derived from the timing of a particular sporting event (not unlike "Mr. October" for a baseball player who excels during the playoffs, or the recently-popularized expression, "You can't script October.").


I suppose the fact that March is a monosyllabic month may make it more readily apt to be incorporated into short expressions, much like May is:




April showers bring May flowers
It's just a spring clean for the May queen
The Maypole dance on May day
murmur'd that their May was passing


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