We are now in the middle of the hot, humid days of summer that we often refer to as the ‘dog days of summer’. They begin in early July and last until late August or early September. They can of course start earlier as we discovered during the heat wave in June. But why do we call them the ‘dog days? Because they are named after the star Sirius in the constellation Orion, and the first visible sighting of Sirius in the northern hemisphere happens early in July. Orion was known as the hunter in Greek and Roman mythology and Sirius was called the hound of Orion. The Roman name for Sirius is canicula, which means small dog (it is the diminutive of canis, the Latin word for dog). And therefore, the Romans referred to these days as dies caniculares, that is, the dog days, a literal translation of the Latin term. We’ve adopted the Latin adjective canicular (which means of or pertaining to the dog star) in English as well, and therefore we can also refer to the dog days as the canicular days.

Thought you’d like to know, all you who take shelter from the humidity in your air-conditioned homes, cars, and offices, and at the lake.