intercalate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin intercalātus (perfect passive participle of intercalō (“I proclaim that something has been intercalated, I insert”)), from inter- (“between, among”) +‎ calo (“I call, I proclaim”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɜː.kəl.eɪt/, /ˌɪn.tə.kəˈleɪt/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈtɝ.kəˌleɪt/
• Rhymes: -eɪt

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, chapter 2, in Essays: Second Series:

     '[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.

   • 1922, Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization‎^[1], page 172:

     At some unknown period, the five days, known to the present time by the names of the five Gathic hymns of Zarathushtra, were intercalated at the end of the twelfth month, to complete the three hundred and sixty-five days of the solar year.

2. To insert an extra month into a calendar for the same purpose, such as for the Hebrew calendar.
3. (molecular biology) To insert a substance between two or more molecules, bases, cells, or tissues.
4. To insert anything somewhere (especially between other things), such as an affix into a word. (Compare interpolate.)
   • 1828, The British Critic, Quarterly Theological Review, and Ecclesiastical Record, page 56:

     ... the personal pronouns which form the terminations of the verb, or by an intercalated suffix, the nature and relation of its objects and its subject , and to distinguish whether the object be animate or inanimate, ...

   • 1894, William Winston Valentine, Phonology and morphology, page 361:

     Sometimes f or s is intercalated to lighten the pronunciation : kommen, Kunft ; können, Kunst ; […]

   • 1969, Romance Philology, volume 23, page 298:

     -erole ← -er- (< -ÅR) + -ole ( < -EOLU): maierole. A lengthened var. of -ole, this suffix appears in the late Middle Ages, formed through “false division”, namely the secondary rapprochement of, say, bannerole (banniere + -ole) or casserole with ban- or cass-. Is the -er- […] intercalated for rhythmic of differentiatory purposes? This "interfix" conveys no semantic message: It simply serves as an occasionally handy grammatical tool.

   • 1971, Moses Gaster, Studies and Texts in Folklore, Magic, Mediaeval Romance, Hebrew Apocrypha, and Samaritan Archaeology, KTAV Publishing House, Inc., →ISBN, page 455:

     ... they were interpreted and modified in the light of Pythagorean harmonies and other mystical manipulations of vowels and letters. The intercalated letters are intended to be the first ten letters of the alphabet as in line 602ff.

   • 2010, John Wesley Tunnell, Encyclopedia of Texas Seashells: Identification, Ecology, Distribution, and History, Texas A&M University Press, →ISBN, page 111:

     Description: Color translucent white; shell cap shaped; sculpture of approximately 40 radiating ribs with intercalated threads alternating between ribs; concentric ribs intersecting radial ribs; anal fasciole relatively short, […]

Derived terms

• deintercalate
• intercalary
• intercalation

Translations

insert an extra day into a calendar

• Bulgarian: вмъквам (bg) (vmǎkvam)
• French: intercaler (fr)

insert an extra month into a calendar

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

• Bulgarian: внедрявам (bg) (vnedrjavam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 插层 (chācéng) (academic)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. 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

References

• “intercalate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “intercalate”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.

Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

intercalate

1. inflection of intercalare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

intercalate f pl

1. feminine plural of intercalato

Anagrams

• anelettrica, intratecale

Latin

Verb

intercalāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of intercalō

Spanish

Verb

intercalate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of intercalar combined with te