August, the 8th month of the year, derived from the Roman calendar. The Romans called it originally Sextilis, or the 6th month of their year, which began with March. Julius Csesar made it 30 days in length, and Augustus increased it to 31. As it was the month in which Augustus Cnesar had entered upon his first consulship, had celebrated three triumphs in the city, had received the allegiance of the soldiers who occupied the Janiculum, had subdued Egypt, and put an end to civil war, the senate, in order to flatter him, changed the name of the month to Augustus, in the same way that Quinctilis had been changed to Julius under Julius Caesar. The Flemings and Germans have adopted the word August to signify harvest. Thus oogst maend (Flemish) is the harvest month; so the German Augst-wagen, a harvest wagon; and the Dutch oogsten, to gather corn from the field. The Spaniards use the verb agostar, to gather in harvest; and the French and Spaniards have the phrases faire l'aout and hacer su augusta, to signify harvesting. The Saxons in Britain named August the weed month.

The old Germans named it Weinkoch, the wme-press month.