intercalate

intercalate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin intercalātus, perfect passive participle of intercalō.

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.

Derived terms

• deintercalate
• intercalary
• intercalation

Translations

insert an extra day into a calendar

French: intercaler (fr)

insert an extra month into a calendar

insert a substance between two or more molecules, bases, cells, or tissues

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Czech: (please verify) vsunout

Romanian: (please verify) intercala (ro), (please verify) insera (ro)

See also

• bissextile
• bissextile month
• bissextile year

• leap year
• leap day

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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

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Latin

Verb

intercalāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of intercalō