The third month of the French Revolutionary calendar, lasting from mid-August to mid-September and named for fruit harvest.
From French fruits (fruits) + dor (of gold), meaning 'the golden fruits.' This was the Revolutionary government's poetic replacement for traditional month names, based on seasonal and agricultural characteristics rather than Roman gods.
Fructidor is linguistic evidence of the French Revolution's ambition to rename everything—even months—to break with monarchy and tradition, though the calendar itself only lasted 12 years before Napoleon abandoned it.
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