Dear All, As is my four-yearly custom, I wish readers of this list a Happy Leap Year Day.
I was delighted, in 2012, when I sent out a similar greeting, that not a single reader queried why I had sent out the message on 24 February. I will add my four-yearly lament that the perfectly good English term "bissextile year" seems to be almost obsolete. Around 100 years ago it was in fairly common use. I continue to applaud the French, the Italians and the Portuguese (just to give three examples) who still use année bissextile, anno bisestile and ano bissexto. Let us hope that they do not indulge in the dumbing-down from which we in the U.K. seem to suffer. Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
