proverb · Words worth keeping
Not in a month of Sundays.
Not in a month of Sundays.
Historical period not yet established
Understand the thought
Meaning in plain English
The phrase uses a month of Sundays to make something seem very unlikely or far beyond expectation. It expresses emphatic disbelief rather than a precise calendar interval.
What the words are saying
The compressed accumulation of Sundays gives the negative claim a playful scale. A useful application can recognise the speaker’s skepticism without treating it as a measured probability. The stray relative date in the supplied gloss is not part of the meaning or a verified historical date.
Everyday example
A speaker uses the phrase to doubt an ambitious promise without calculating a number of days.
When to use it
Use it to explain emphatic skepticism with no literal timescale assumed.
What it does not mean
No probability, calendar duration or historical date is established.
Agent-assisted editorial interpretation. This explains the words; it does not by itself verify their author or earliest origin.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Traditional
Attribution: traditional - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates. - Recorded source
- Contributor-provided proverb reference
Supplied reference A; unit 377; PDF page 57
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.