bissextile

[cherydactyl]

bissextile (by-SEKS-til) adj: Of or pertaining to the leap year or the extra day in the leap year; noun: Leap year.

[From Latin bisextilis annus (leap year), from Latin bissextus (February 29: leap day), from bi- (two) + sextus (sixth), from the fact that the sixth day before the Calends of March (February 24) appeared twice every leap year.]

from an old word-a-day email I found while cleaning out my overfull inbox. Subscribe here if interested: http://wordsmith.org/awad/subscriber.html

Comments

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

That's one of those words that's a lot less interesting than it sounds at first... ;-)

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

You would think so, wouldn't you?