Etymology

intercalate

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Today it means: To insert an extra leap day into a calendar in order to maintain synchrony with natural phenomena. Full definition →

Latin intercalātus
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The story

  1. Latin · borrowed fromintercalātus
  2. English todayintercalate

The verb is first attested in 1614, the noun in 1964; borrowed from Latin intercalātus, perfect passive participle of intercalō (“to proclaim that a day, an event, etc. has been intercalated; to insert”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (noun-forming suffix)), from inter- (“between, among”) + calō (“to call; to proclaim”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.