intercalary

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

adjective having a day or month inserted to make the calendar year correspond to the solar year:

From Latin intercalārius, from intercalāris, from intercalō, from inter (“among”) + calō (“call out, proclaim”).

But to quit this episode, and to return to my intercalary year of happiness. — Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, Thomas De Quincey
Many kinds of fasts are necessary; and wherever powerful influences and habits prevail, legislators have to see that intercalary days are appointed, on which such impulses are fettered, and learn to hunger anew. — Beyond Good and Evil, Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
Indeed, they always looked back with wistful, melancholy regret upon the two intercalary years of happiness by the crystalline Chrysorrhoa, and Mrs. Burton could never forget that last sad ride through the beloved Plain of Zebedani. — The Life of Sir Richard Burton, Thomas Wright

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