A leap year is the year, once every four, when February gets an extra day. Born in a leap year, a leap year baby, the next leap year.
The rule is not simply every four, since century years are skipped unless divisible by four hundred, which is why 1900 was not a leap year and 2000 was. The name comes from fixed dates leaping forward two weekdays instead of one.
1phraseleap yearThe year, once every four, when February gets an extra day.
“She was born on 29 February, so she only has a real birthday in a leap year.”
leap year is a year.
Middle English lepe-yer names the year in which a fixed date leaps forward an extra weekday.
Proto-Indo-European
*klewp- — to spring; to stumble
Old English
hlīep
Middle English
lepe-yer
English, today
leap year
Built from
From Late Middle English lepe-yer, lep-yer (“year with 366 days, leap year”), from lep, lepe (“act of jumping, jump, leap”) (from Old English hlīep, hlȳp, probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European klewp- (“to spring; to stumble”)) + yer (“calendrical unit based on a complete revolution of the Earth around the Sun, year”) (from Old English ġēar, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European yóh₁r̥ (“year”)). The English term is analysable as leap + year, and possibly relates to the phenomenon that any fixed date of a 365-day calendar advances one weekday each year but every date of a 366-day year after February 29 (often seen as the leap day) advances by two weekdays instead. For example, Christmas (December 25) fell on a Saturday in 2004, a Sunday in 2005, a Monday in 2006, and a Tuesday in 2007 but then “leapt” over Wednesday to fall on a Thursday in 2008 which was a leap year. Compare also Old English mōnan hlȳp (“moon’s leap”) and Medieval Latin saltus lūnae literally “leap moon”, an additional day added every 19 years (a Metonic cycle) to bring the lunar and solar calendars into alignment. 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in Time & Calendar