leap year

leap year
\ \ [14] The inspiration for the term leap year is probably simply that in such a year the day on which any given date falls ‘jumps’ one day ahead of where it would have been in an ordinary year. The metaphorical application of the notion of ‘jumping’ to this phenomenon predates the first record of the term leap year: medieval Latin, for instance, used the term saltus lunaemoon’s jump’ for the nineteen-yearly omission of a day from the lunar calendar, and this was translated into Old English as mōnan hlypmoon’s leap’.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Leap Year — est un film américain d Anand Tucker dont le tournage a commencé en mars 2009 et dont la sortie est prévue en 2010[1]. Sommaire 1 Synopsis 2 Fiche technique …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Leap year — Year Year, n. [OE. yer, yeer, [yogh]er, AS. ge[ a]r; akin to OFries. i?r, g?r, D. jaar, OHG. j[=a]r, G. jahr, Icel. [=a]r, Dan. aar, Sw. [*a]r, Goth. j?r, Gr. ? a season of the year, springtime, a part of the day, an hour, ? a year, Zend y[=a]re… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Leap year — Bissextile; a year containing 366 days; every fourth year which leaps over a day more than a common year, giving to February twenty nine days. See {Bissextile}. [1913 Webster] Note: Every year whose number is divisible by four without a remainde …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • LEAP YEAR — LEAP YEAR, refers to the 13 month year in the jewish calendar . Leap year results from the intercalation (Heb. עִבּוּר, pregnancy ) of an additional month, called Adar Sheni ( Second Adar ) or Ve Adar ( and Adar ). Adar, the regular 12th month,… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • leap year — late 14c., from LEAP (Cf. leap) (v.) + YEAR (Cf. year). So called from its causing fixed festival days, which normally advance one weekday per year, to leap ahead one day in the week …   Etymology dictionary

  • leap year — leap years N COUNT A leap year is a year which has 366 days. The extra day is the 29th February. There is a leap year every four years …   English dictionary

  • leap year — n. a year of 366 days in the Gregorian calendar, occurring every fourth year: the additional day, Feb. 29, makes up for the time lost annually when the approximate 3651/ 4 day cycle is computed as 365 days: a leap year is a year whose number is… …   English World dictionary

  • leap year — ► NOUN ▪ a year, occurring once every four years, which has 366 days including 29 February as an intercalary day. ORIGIN probably from the fact that feast days after February in a leap year fell two days later than in the previous year, rather… …   English terms dictionary

  • Leap Year — Título Año bisiesto (Chile)/¿Te casas Conmigo? (Brasil)/Tenías que ser tú (España)/ Propuesta en Año Bisiesto (Argentina) Ficha técnica Dirección Anand Tucker Música John Williams …   Wikipedia Español

  • leap year — n [Date: 1300 1400; Origin: Perhaps because a date in such a year jumps one day ahead of the day on which it would otherwise have fallen] a year, which happens every fourth year, when February has 29 days instead of 28 …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • leap year — leap′ year n. 1) hor (in the Gregorian calendar) a year that contains 366 days, with February 29 as an additional day: occurring in years whose last two digits are evenly divisible by four, except for centenary years not divisible by 400 2) hor a …   From formal English to slang

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”