Dear All,
Jack Aubert is spot-on right in his explanation.
The Italian for "leap year" is "anno bisestile"
which is not far from the Latin. I assume that
any Italian will, around the age of six, ponder
the underlying meaning and quickly discover what
it is all about.
There is a perfectly respectable English term
"bisextile year" which was once in common use.
Sadly it seems to have been lost in the early
20th century. Absolutely the only time I come
across it nowadays is in this mailing list!!
I find "leap year" a very unsatisfactory term.
Jack is quite right that there were two dates
with the same number and if I had my way the
tail-end dates of February would, in a leap
year, be numbered:
22, 23, 24', 24, 25, 26, 27, 28
It is important to note that the extra day,
24', is before (in time) 24.
Even I grudgingly accept that this numbering
is unlikely to catch on so I am happy enough
with the usual rejig to:
22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29
but my happiness requires acceptance that
(with this rejig) 24 is the extra day!
All this predates Christianity so you can't
blame it on religion!
That said, certain Saint's Days are affected,
most notably S. Matthias. His day is 24 February
and stays 24 February with my numbering scheme
in a leap year. The rejig means his day is
25 February in Leap Years.
For completeness, I should note that all the
above applies to MOST of the world but not
quite all of it. Finland and Sweden have
enacted legislation to deem 29 February to
be the extra day. Such legislation has not
been enacted anywhere else as far as I know.
I cannot imagine this kind of thread being
discussed on any other mailing list!
Frank
Frank King
Cambridge, U.K.
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