different between bissextile vs intercalate

English

Etymology

From Latin bisextilis annus (“bissextile year”), from bisextus + -ilis, from bis- (“two; twice; doubled”) + sextus (“sixth”) + dies (“day”), from the Julian calendar's original reckoning of its quadrennial intercalary day as a 48-hour February 24, subsequently distinguished as the two separate days of the sixth day before the March calends (sexto Kalendas Martii) and the "doubled sixth day". (February 24 is now normally understood as five days before the first of March, but was called the sixth by the Romans owing to their inclusive counting of dates. See Roman calendar on Wikipedia.)

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b??s?kst?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /b??s?ks.ta??l/, /b???s?ks.t??l/, /b???s?ks.t?l/, /b??s?ks.t?l/

Adjective

bissextile (not comparable)

1. Having an intercalary day, particularly the quadrennial leap day of the Julian and Gregorian calendars traditionally placed as a "second sixth" day before March 1st.
   • 1878, W.S.B. Woolhouse & al., "Calendar" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 666–7:

     The additional day which occurred every fourth year [after the Julian Reform] was given to February, as being the shortest month, and was inserted in the calendar between the 24th and 25th day. February having then twenty-nine days, the 25th was the 6th of the calends of March, sexto calendas; the preceding, which was the additional or intercalary day, was called bis-sexto calendas,—hence the term bissextile, which is still employed to distinguish the year of 366 days. The English denomination of leap-year would have been more appropriate if that year had differed from common years in defect, and contained only 364 days. In the ecclesiastical calendar the intercalary day is still placed between the 24th and 25th of February; in the civil calendar it is the 29th.

Hypernyms

• intercalary, leap

Derived terms

• bissextile month
• bissextile year

Related terms

• bissext

Translations

Noun

bissextile (plural bissextiles)

1. Synonym of leap year: a year with an intercalary day.

Translations

References

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

bissextile

1. feminine singular of bissextil

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin intercal?tus (perfect passive participle of intercal? (“I proclaim that something has been intercalated, I insert”)), from inter- (“between, among”) +? calo (“I call, I proclaim”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?n?t??.k?l.e?t/, /??n.t?.k??le?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?n?t?.k??le?t/
• Rhymes: -e?t

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -e?t

Verb

intercalate (third-person singular simple present intercalates, present participle intercalating, simple past and past participle intercalated)

1. To insert an extra leap day into a calendar in order to maintain synchrony with natural phenomena.
   • 1844, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: Second Series, ch. 2:

     '[T]is wonderful where or when we ever got anything of this which we call wisdom, poetry, virtue. We never got it on any dated calendar day. Some heavenly days must have been intercalated somewhere.
2. To insert an extra month into a calendar for the same purpose. The Hebrew calendar has such a month.
3. (molecular biology) To insert a substance between two or more molecules, bases, cells, or tissues.
4. To insert anything somewhere (especially between other things), such as an affix into a word. (Compare interpolate.)
   • 1828, The British Critic, Quarterly Theological Review, and Ecclesiastical Record, page 56:

     ... the personal pronouns which form the terminations of the verb, or by an intercalated suffix, the nature and relation of its objects and its subject , and to distinguish whether the object be animate or inanimate, ...

   • 1894, William Winston Valentine, Phonology and morphology, page 361:

     Sometimes f or s is intercalated to lighten the pronunciation : kommen, Kunft ; können, Kunst ; […]

   • 1969, Romance Philology, volume 23, page 298:

     -erole ? -er- (< -ÅR) + -ole ( < -EOLU): maierole. A lengthened var. of -ole, this suffix appears in the late Middle Ages, formed through “false division”, namely the secondary rapprochement of, say, bannerole (banniere + -ole) or casserole with ban- or cass-. Is the -er- […] intercalated for rhythmic of differentiatory purposes? This "interfix" conveys no semantic message: It simply serves as an occasionally handy grammatical tool.

   • 1971, Moses Gaster, Studies and Texts in Folklore, Magic, Mediaeval Romance, Hebrew Apocrypha, and Samaritan Archaeology, KTAV Publishing House, Inc. (?ISBN), page 455:

     ... they were interpreted and modified in the light of Pythagorean harmonies and other mystical manipulations of vowels and letters. The intercalated letters are intended to be the first ten letters of the alphabet as in line 602ff.

   • 2010, John Wesley Tunnell, Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells: Identification, Ecology, Distribution, and History, Texas A&M University Press (?ISBN), page 111:

     Description: Color translucent white; shell cap shaped; sculpture of approximately 40 radiating ribs with intercalated threads alternating between ribs; concentric ribs intersecting radial ribs; anal fasciole relatively short, […]

Derived terms

• deintercalate
• intercalary
• intercalation

Translations

See also

References

• “intercalate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.
• “intercalate”, in Merriam–Webster Online Dictionary, (Please provide a date or year).

Italian

Verb

intercalate

1. second-person plural present indicative of intercalare
2. second-person plural imperative of intercalare
3. feminine plural of intercalato

Anagrams

• anelettrica, intratecale

Latin

Verb

intercal?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of intercal?