Vendémiaire, n.

(vŏng'dā'mĭ-ār'), n. [Fr., from Lat. vindemia, vintage, from vinum, wine, and demere, to take or gather.] The first month of the French republican calendar dating from September 22, 1792. It commenced September 22 or 23, and ended October 21 or 22.

☞— The republican calendar of the French was substituted for the ordinary calendar dating from the Christian era, by a decree of the National Convention in 1793, after the close of the revolution; and the 22d of September, fixed upon as the day of the foundation of the republic, was also the date of the new calendar. In this calendar, the year, which began at midnight of the day of the autumnal equinox, was divided into twelve months of thirty days, with five additional days for festivals, and every fourth year six. The months were divided by decades, and the days into ten hours of one hundred minutes each. The names of the months in their order were, Vendémiaire, Brumaire, Frimaire, Nivose, Pluviose, Ventose, Germinal, Floréal, Prairial, Messidor, Thermidor (sometimes called Fervidor), and Fructidor. The calendar was abolished and the ordinary one restored by Napoleon in 1806.