E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Greek Calends.
Never. To defer anything to the Greek Calends is to defer it sine die. There were no calends in the Greek months. The Romans used to pay rents, taxes, bills, etc., on the calends, and to defer paying them to the “Greek Calends” was virtually to repudiate them. (See NEVER.)
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“Will you speak of your paltry prose doings in my presence, whose great historical poem, in twenty books, with notes in proportion, has been postponed ‘ad Græcas Kalendas?”—Sir W. Scott: The Betrothed (Introduction).
