"Greek calends" meaning in English

See Greek calends in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Calque of Latin ad kalendās Graecās; unlike the Roman calendar, the Greek calendar had no calends. Etymology templates: {{cal|en|la|ad kalendās Graecās}} Calque of Latin ad kalendās Graecās Head templates: {{en-noun|p}} Greek calends pl (plural only)
  1. (idiomatic) A time that never occurs; never; when pigs fly. Tags: idiomatic, plural, plural-only Synonyms: Greek kalends Translations (a time that never occurs): Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag [masculine] (German) Translations (never (translations include the leading preposition)): met sint-juttemis (Dutch), aux calendes grecques (French), am Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag (German), alle calende greche (Italian), ad kalendas Graecas (Latin), до гре́ческих кале́нд (do gréčeskix kalénd) (Russian)

Alternative forms

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      "args": {
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          "ref": "1923, [François Béroalde de Verville], “Origin of the Decretals”, in Arthur Machen, transl., Fantastic Tales or The Way to Attain—a Book Full of Pantagruelism Now Done for the First Time in English, Carbonnek [i.e., London]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 98:",
          "text": "Blockheads, friends of my heart and liver, cousins of my tripe, are you ignorant that this symposium is as authentic as any of those tales of the Greek Calends, which you swallow and digest so easily, [...]?",
          "type": "quote"
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        {
          "ref": "1950 January 12, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “Letters: 1950 [To Sister Penelope CSMV (BOD)]”, in Walter Hooper, editor, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, volumes III (Narnia, Cambridge and Joy 1950–1963), New York, N.Y.: HarperSanFrancisco, HarperCollins, →ISBN, pages 5–6:",
          "text": "My book with Professor [John Ronald Reuel] Tolkien – any book in collaboration with that great but dilatory and unmethodical man – is dated, I fear, to appear on the Greek Kalends!",
          "type": "quote"
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        "A time that never occurs; never; when pigs fly."
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      "id": "en-Greek_calends-en-noun-OqXE7Ip4",
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        "(idiomatic) A time that never occurs; never; when pigs fly."
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          "code": "de",
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          "sense": "a time that never occurs",
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            "masculine"
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          "word": "Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag"
        },
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          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "met sint-juttemis"
        },
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          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "aux calendes grecques"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "am Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "alle calende greche"
        },
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          "code": "la",
          "lang": "Latin",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "ad kalendas Graecas"
        },
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          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "do gréčeskix kalénd",
          "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
          "word": "до гре́ческих кале́нд"
        }
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    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "a time that never occurs",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag"
    },
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      "lang": "Dutch",
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      "word": "met sint-juttemis"
    },
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      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
      "word": "aux calendes grecques"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
      "word": "am Sankt-Nimmerleins-Tag"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
      "word": "alle calende greche"
    },
    {
      "code": "la",
      "lang": "Latin",
      "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
      "word": "ad kalendas Graecas"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "do gréčeskix kalénd",
      "sense": "never (translations include the leading preposition)",
      "word": "до гре́ческих кале́нд"
    }
  ],
  "word": "Greek calends"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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