An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

In a calendar, having an extra day or month inserted.

O.E. hleapan "to jump, run, leap" (cf. O.S. hlopan, O.N. hlaupa, O.Fris. hlapa, Du. lopen, Ger. laufen "to run," Goth. us-hlaupan "to jump up"), of uncertain origin, with no known cognates beyond Germanic. The noun is O.E. hlyp (Anglian *hlep). Noun in leap year, so called from its causing fixed festival days to "leap" ahead one day in the week.

Andarheli, from andarhel, verbal noun of andarhelidan, andarheštan "to insert," from andar-→ inter- + helidan, heštan "to place, put" from Mid.Pers. hištan, hilidan "to let, set, leave, abandon;" Parthian Mid.Pers. hyrz; O.Pers. hard- "to send forth;" ava.hard- "to abandon;" Av. harəz- "to discharge, send out; to filter," hərəzaiti "releases, shoots;" cf. Skt. srj- "to let go or fly, throw, cast, emit, put forth;" Pali sajati "to let loose, send forth."

The extra day added to a solar calendar (e.g. Gregorian, Iranian) in a leap year.

→ leap; → day.

An intercalary month employed in some calendars to preserve a seasonal relationship between the Lunar and Solar cycles. → embolismic month.

→ leap; → month.

A one-second added between 60s and 0s at announced times to keep the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), counted by atomic clocks, within 0s.90 of mean solar time (UT1). Generally, leap seconds are added at the end of June or December.

→ leap; → second.

In solar calendars the year that contains 366 days, instead of 365, in order to keep the calendar in pace with the real solar time.

→ leap; → year.

The three criteria that identify → leap years in the → Gregorian calendar: 1) The year must be evenly divisible by 4; 2) If the year can be evenly divided by 100, it is not a leap year, unless; 3) The year is also evenly divisible by 400. This means that in the Gregorian calendar, the years 1600, 2000, and 2400 are leap years, while 1700, 1800, 1900, 2100, 2200, 2300 and 2500 are not leap years.

→ leap; → year; → rule.