Intercalate

Origin

Borrowed from Latin intercalātus, perfect passive participle of intercalō.

Full definition of intercalate

Verb

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:'Tis 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

• intercalary
• intercalation